Farm Sector Reforms - 4
Continuing from yesterday (See Farm Sector Reforms – 3 ) The Parliament passed The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020. The stated objective of the amendment is to make sure that farmers get remunerative prices for their produce, and large scale private investment in agriculture related infrastructure (cold stores, warehouses and agro processing industry) could be attracted. This amendment was considered necessary to achieve the objectives of The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, that enables contract farming and forward contracts in agriculture produce. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020, basically changes the following two things: 1. The power of central government to regulate the supply of food commodities, including cereals, pulses, potato, onions, edible oilseeds and oils etc., has been limited to the extraordinary circumstances like war, famine, extraordinary price ris...