Agriculture Current Affairs Part 2

Agriculture Current Affairs Part 2

Important Current Affairs related to Agriculture

Agriculture Current Affairs Part 2

AGRICULTURAL MARKETING

 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE MARKET COMMITTEES (APMCS)

• Central government is impressing upon states to dismantle the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and move towards a better platform by adopting electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) as digital agriculture market at national level will ensure that farmers get better price for their produce.
• APMC are established by the state governments in order to eliminate the incidences exploitation of the farmers by the intermediaries, where they are forced to sell their produce at extremely low prices.

• All the food produce must be brought to the market and sales are made through auction.

• e-NAM is pan-India electronic trading portal for farm produce which aims to create unified national market for agricultural commodities by integrating existing APMC markets.  It was launched in 2016.

 Agriculture Ministry to link eNAM with FPOs, warehouses

• With integration of National Agriculture Market (eNAM) with warehouse receipt, trading can happen from the warehouse itself, without the need to take goods to mandis.
• Integration of FPOs with eNAM enhances small farmers competitiveness and increase their advantage in emerging marketing system.

FARMER PRODUCER ORGANISATIONS

• The concept of FPO begun during 2011-12 when a pilot project was launched where in 2.5 lakh farmers were roped into 250 FPOs. Based on its encouraging results it was extended to other areas.
• A Producer Organisation (PO) is a legal entity (company, a cooperative society etc.) formed by primary producers, viz. farmers, milk producers, fishermen, weavers, rural artisans, craftsmen.
• FPO is one type of PO where the members are farmers.
• Through formation of FPOs, the farmers will have better collective strength for better access to quality input, technology, credit and better marketing access through economies of scale for better realization of income.
• Currently, there are over 5,000 FPOs in the country. 20% of these are struggling to be viable and 50% are in mobilisation stage only.
• Only 45% of the small and marginal farmers are covered under institutional credit out of the 85% of S&M farmers.

• Recently, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, approved scheme titled "Formation and Promotion of Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)”.
• The report of 'Doubling of Farmer's Income (DFI)' has recommended formation of 7,000 FPOs by 2022 towards convergence of efforts for doubling the farmers' income.

•  In Union Budget 2019-20, creation of 10,000 new FPOs over the next five years was announced.

• Some challenges faced by FPOs include

• Difficulty in mobilising farmers,
• Proper management,
• Problems every incubation project faces,
• Limited membership, policies,
• Autonomy and credit restrictions without offering collateral etc

CONTRACT FARMING

• Contract farming is based on a pre-harvest agreement (or forward contracts) between the buyers (such as food processing units and exporters) and producers (farmers or farmer organisations).
• It is under the Concurrent List; however, Agriculture is under State list.
•  Government has also exempted firms engaged in contract farming from the existing licensing and restrictions on stock limit and movement of foodstuff under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955,

 • Legislation related to Contract Farming in India

• In order to protect the interests of producers and sponsors of Contract Farming, the Ministry of Agriculture drafted Model APMC Act, 2003, which provided provisions for registration of sponsors, recording of agreement, dispute settlement mechanism.
• Consequently, some states had amended their APMC Acts to provide for it but Punjab had a separate law on contract farming.
• Central government has put in place a Model Contract Farming Act 2018, which encourages state governments to enact clear contract farming laws in line with the model act.
• It has been drafted as a promotional and facilitative act and is not regulatory in its structure.
• Supreme court in its recent verdict has said farmers who carry out farming under a contract that obliges them to buy the seeds from a firm and sell the produce back to the same company is a consumer.
• This status of a “consumer” now invokes all protections under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 for the farmers practising contract farming.
• Tamil Nadu has become the first State to enact a law on contract farming based on the lines of Model Contract Farming Act, 2018 of the Central Government.

Model Contract Farming Act, 2018

• The act lays special emphasis on protecting the interests of the farmers, considering them as weaker of the two parties entering into a contract.
• It ensures buying of entire pre-agreed quantity  from producer at fixed pre-agreed price and quality standards as per the contract.
• It includes all categories of agronomic and horticulture crops, livestock, dairy, poultry and fishery.
• All services in the agriculture value chain, including pre-production, production (including extension services) and post-production services, are under its ambit.
• It seeks to setup a Contract Farming (Development and Promotion) Authority at state level to ensure implementation and popularize contract farming among stakeholders.
• It provides for Contract Farming Facilitation Group (CFFG) at village/Panchayat level to take quick and need based decisions relating to production and postproduction activities.
• It provides for a Registering and Agreement Recording Committee at local level to register contracts.
• It provides for a dispute settlement mechanism at the lowest level possible for quick disposal of disputes arising out of the breach of contract or any provision of the Act.
• It promotes Farmer Producer Organization (FPOs) / Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) to mobilize small and marginal farmers to benefit from scales of economy in production and post-production activities.
• It bars the transfer of ownership of the farmer’s land to sponsor companies under all circumstances. It prohibits sponsors from raising permanent structures on farmer’s land.
• It provides farmers an alternative in cases where the procurement mechanism is ineffective.
• Contract farming will remain outside the ambit of respective Agricultural Produce Marketing Act of the states/UTs. Buyers are also exempted from market fee and commission charges.
• Limits of stockholding of agricultural produce will not be applicable on produce purchased under contract farming.

PERFORMANCE OF SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME

• Soil Health Card scheme recently completed five successful years of implementation.
• Soil health and fertility is the basis for sustainable profitability of the farmers. Using optimal doses of fertilizers and cropping pattern as per the scientific recommendation is the first step towards sustainable farming.
• In India, the current consumption of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (NPK) ratio is 6.7:2.4:1, which is highly skewed towards nitrogen (urea) as against ideal ratio of 4:2:1. About the scheme
• Under this, SHC is a printed report that a farmer will be handed over for each of his holdings.
• It is provided to all farmers in the country at an interval of 2 years to enable the farmers to apply recommended doses of nutrients based on soil test values to realize improved and sustainable soil health and fertility, low costs and higher profits.
• The scheme is being promoted by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers welfare under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and implemented by respective Department of Agriculture in States & UTs.
• The cost of sampling, testing and reporting is borne by Central Government. It provides the sum to the state governments.

• Soil samples are tested with respect to 12 parameters:

• Macro nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K);
• Secondary nutrient: Sulphur (S);
• Micro nutrients: Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Boron (B);
• Physical parameters: pH, EC (electrical conductivity), OC (organic carbon).

• Based on this, SHC provides two sets of fertilizer recommendations for six crops including recommendations of organic manures.

• Farmers can also get recommendations for additional crops on demand.

• Under the scheme village youth and farmers up to 40 years of age are eligible to set up Soil Health Laboratories and undertake testing.

• Recent addition is the pilot project of ‘Development of Model Villages’ which encourages sampling and testing of cultivable soil in partnership with the farmers.

• Under the pilot, one village per block is adopted to collect soil samples at the level of individual farm holdings rather than at grid level.

 Performance of the scheme

• Coverage: Around 22.5 crore SHCs have been distributed.
• Increased yield: As per the data from National Productivity Council (NPC), the scheme has facilitated decrease of use of chemical fertilisers by 8-10% while enhancing the crop yield by 5-6%.
• Cost of cultivation: Cost of cultivation decreased by 16-25% in rice, 10-15% in oilseeds & Pulses.
• Savings in fertilizers: In rice, savings of nitrogen was found to be around 20kg/acre; in pulses, it was 10kg/acre. 
• Soil analyzing capacity: It has increased from 1.78 to 3.33 crore soil samples per annum in short period of 5 years.
•  Existing Soil testing labs (STLs) are being strengthened and new static and mobile STLs have been established, along with the Village level soil testing facilities (VLSTLs).

NEW WHEAT FROM IARI

• Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has released a new variety- HD-3226 or Pusa Yashasvi, for planting in the upcoming rabi crop season.
• Its yield is comparable to or higher than other wheat varieties.
• It also has higher content of protein and gluten (which contributes to strength and elasticity of the dough), apart from more zinc.
• The variety has also high levels of resistance against all major rust fungi — yellow/stripe, brown/leaf and black/stem.
• The new variety is also known for its amenability to “conservation agriculture”.

• Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a farming system that can prevent losses of arable land while regenerating degraded lands. It promotes maintenance of a permanent soil cover, minimum soil disturbance, and diversification of plant species.

 Recent Crop/Horticulture Varieties From IARI

• Pusa Basmati 1718: Rice variety resistant to bacterial leaf scorch.
• Pusa Sambha 1850: A high yielding, non-basmati, medium slender grain, blast resistant rice variety.
• Pusa Aditi: Grape hybrid released for its commercial cultivation in NCR region
• Pusa Sona: Onion variety has been released apart from various other horticulture crops such as melons, cucumber, cauliflower etc.