Jammu, Oct 1 (UNI) Calling new age farmers as ‘New Age Agriculture Technocrats’, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Thursday said that they also deserve equal opportunities to market their produce like other technocrats or entrepreneurs.
“The new age farmers are ‘New-Age Agriculture Technocrats’ and deserved equal opportunities to market their produce as like other technocrats or entrepreneurs since they were no longer tied to the prices of the Mandies,” said Dr Singh while addressing a press conference here on “Empowerment of farmers” on the recent Farm legislations passed by the Parliament.
He further said that in the new legislations there were provisions for procuring produce at MSP by the intending farmers in addition to other options that were not available earlier.
“The move would increase trading on electronic platforms leading to greater efficiency and transparency,” said Dr Singh adding that it would also attract investment and technological interventions in agriculture equally available to big and small farmers.
Dr Singh said that the recent Farm legislations passed by the Parliament were representative of democratization of Indian Agriculture since they provided freedom of choice to the farming community.
“These legislations were progressive would provide impetus to Indian agriculture to complete at a global stage while protecting farmers interests and improving farm incomes,” he said adding that the Government led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the greatest emphasis on the welfare and upliftment of the poor and backward sections.
While mentioning the benefits of the recent farm legislations, Dr Singh said that the producers i.e., the farming community deserved better opportunities and freedom of choice.
Since the present system had certain restrictions in terms of marketing the farm produce, the recent legislation would provide a wide variety of competitive choices for the producers for marketing.
He said that to make Indian agriculture competitive, revolutionary and transformational reforms were needed that would result in increased productivity and increased.
“Recent legislations would also help create employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in agriculture and allied sectors thereby increasing farm incomes on which more than half of Indian population is dependent,” he added.
Dr Singh said that the Union Government’s committed to the welfare and empowerment of farmers was evident from a range of progressive initiatives implemented across the length and breadth of the country.
These included PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Fasal BimaYojna, Kisan Credit Card, Soil Health Cards, dedicated bamboo clusters, Fruit parks etc, he said.
He further mentioned that the MSP for Wheat rice, soye and other farm commodities had been increasing continuously since 2015-16 as a consequence of progressive and conscious efforts made by the government in farmer’s interest.
While allying away fears related to the farm legislations Dr Singh said that there was need for greater awareness on the issue since many misconceptions and false narratives were being created on the issue.
“To progress you need policies with intent and if you do not have intent, you cannot frame any policy towards development,” the Minister added.
However, taking a jibe at opposition (without naming Congress and Akali Dal), he termed the protestors as ‘Professional Protestors’, who have been engaged to launch mis-campaign on Farmers Bills.
While mentioning about contract farming, Dr Singh said that there were enough safeguards being provided for the farmers under the contracts that the farmers may be entering into.
He said that these contracts were voluntary and the farmers were not bound by these contracts since these could be dissolved anytime.
UNI VBH ASN 2056