Emphasis on increase in agro-product, marketing and export, committee will submit its report in one and half month – Fadnavis

Mumbai, August 16, 2019 :- The second meeting of chief ministers High power committee for transformation of Indian agriculture, headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was today held at the Sahyadri guest house. Chief Minister Mr Fadnavis, Union Minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath, CM of Gujarat Vijay Rupani, finance minister of Punjab Manpreet Singh Badal, agriculture minister of Uttar Pradesh Surya Pratap Sahi, agriculture minister of Odisha Arun Kumar Sahu, were present in the meeting.  Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar participated through the video conferencing.

The member secretary of the committee presented  the collective views of various issues tabled by different states. Improvement in the market committee laws, Contract farming, using new technology in agriculture, excluding the agriculture produce from essential commodities Act (ECA). E-Nam, agriculture export and other like subjects were discussed in this meeting. The chief ministers and Agriculture ministers of other states put forth their views. All the states are going to give their suggestions on the topics discussed today within a week’s time after which a meeting of Agricultural secretaries of various States will be organized in a fortnight with Niti Aayog.

The draft of the report will be prepared and tabled before the chief ministers’ high power committee. Around one and a half month will be required to prepare final report and present it to the Prime Minister. This information was given by Chief Minister Mr Devendra Fadnavis during the Press Conference organized after the meeting.

Mr Fadnavis further said that the productivity of agricultural field, marketing and exporting of agro products were discussed in the meeting of the committee. He said the final report that will be submitted to the Prime Minister, will emphasize these subjects. Mr Fadnavis further said that after gathering the opinions of chief ministers and agriculture ministers of all the states, the committee will suggest drastic changes for positive transformation in the field of agriculture. This can be an important step in agricultural advancement, he added.

Mr Fadnavis said that the Union has prepare a model Act related to amendments that can be made in the laws pertaining to market to ensure that the farmers get good price for their agricultural produce. He said that the meeting also discussed about accepting this amendments by all the states. He also said that discussions were held on the issues related to agriculture that should be excluded from the present Essential Commodities Act (ECA) so that the prices of Agro produce does not fall. Detailed discussions were held on this topic in the meeting.

The issues and the strategies needed for increasing the investment from private sector into agricultural field and implementation of union Government sponsored schemes in the states were also discuss in this meeting. Giving more information, chief minister Fadnavis further said that emphasis will be given on increasing the export of agricultural produce. He said that for this purpose, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority(APEDA)  is brought into focus For further enhancing the efforts.

He said that combining the agriculture and Commerce field, market can be made available to the agricultural produce and APEDA can assist to larger extend in this endeavor. Declaring of the pesticides free crop area, Preparing of criteria for using organic farming produce, similarly accepting the good amendments made by other states in the field of agriculture and implementing that in the states, national wide were also discussed in the meeting.

Efforts are on to bring new technologies in the field of agriculture. Our nation is exporting edible oil on large scale. To reduce this export, oil seed production will be given a fillip in the nation. The Chief Minister said that we are also inviting suggestions from various states whether to use the Genetically Modified (GM) technology or not. He also said that while transforming the crop process, encouragement will be given to the production of fuel from agricultural produce. This will help the farmers in selling their product, the chief minister added.