NEW DELHI: After failing to deliver the desired results in agriculture in his first term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for reforms in agricultural marketing and freeing the agrarian sector of various restrictions with appropriate backing of statute. In the meeting the possibility of developing e-NAM into a platform to enable e-commerce was also discussed.
The PM on Saturday presided over a high-level meeting on agriculture, which was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who focused on making strategic interventions in agriculture, said an official statement.
“Discussion was around the possibilities of uniform statutory framework in the country to facilitate new ways for farming which will infuse capital and technology in the agrarian economy. Besides strategic interventions in the existing marketing eco-system, challenges of (adopting) Model Land Leasing Act were also discussed,” said the statement.
It also added that the meeting also deliberated on making Essential Commodities Act compatible with present times for large scale private investment in post-production so that the agriculture infrastructure is incentivised and also has a positive effect on commodity derivative markets.
“The pros and cons of bio-technological developments in crops for enhancement of productivity and reduction in input costs was also deliberated,” the statement stated. Concessional credit flow to strengthen agriculture infrastructure, special Kisan Credit Card saturation drive for PM-Kisan beneficiaries and facilitating inter and intra-state trade of agriculture produce to ensure fairest return to farmer were some of the important areas covered during the meeting, added the official statement.