Naysa Shrivastava, Pune
The presented scheme is regarding agricultural marketing, land leasing and contract farming. The scheme was brought under NITI Ayog official in the PowerPoint presentation called “ India’s Amrit Kaal: Mobilizing the nation to sustain fast growth”, presented to PM Narendra Modi. The discussion was about “transformative interventions” decided to be executed during India’s Amrit Kaal, which is of 25 years (2022-47). Pending Seed Bill and increasing the public investment to 5 percent of Gross Value Addition (GVA) of Agriculture.
Three years after the abrogation of 3 farm laws in 2021, the government is taking the initiative to invest more in the agricultural sector. The scheme is a rejuvenated idea generated by the 15th Commission of Finance in the 2020-21 financial year. According to the report, states would have been fit for the financial incentives if they implemented all the aspects of the Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 (by Niti Ayog) designed to regulate the leasing of agricultural land and efficient use of land resources. Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017 aimed at increasing the farmer’s reach to market and minimizing the role of intermediaries, Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2018 aimed at developing agreement between the farmers and the agriculture business firms.
In 2020 the Finance Commission expanded its decision, “It is appropriate to mention that out of these three policy reforms advised by us, the Union Government has passed two Acts- (a) The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020 and (b) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020. We feel that with these two laws, there is no need to commission to incentivize States to adopt the Model APLM Act and Model Contract Farming Act but the Model of Land Leasing is still on our agenda. We consider that 45,000 crore be kept as performance-based incentives for all the states for carrying out agricultural reforms during the reward period” the commission report noted for 2021-26.
The four areas that are crucial for agricultural development taken into consideration by the government for the performance-based incentives are reforms for land lease, sustainable and systematic use of water in agriculture, promotion of export and contribution towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat. “The Government will give consideration to sectors identified by the Commission while formulating existing and new Centrally and Central Sector Schemes”, the Department of Economic Affairs told Indian Express.