CII Jharkhand welcomes new farm laws, lauds Centre for pushing reforms

Jharkhand State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has come out in support of the three farm laws, welcoming the Union government’s decision to push for agri marketing reforms.

“The reforms are aimed towards moving to a ‘One Nation, One Market’ regime. The reforms were announced under the economic package for building Atmanirbhar Bharat and the quick action in terms of approval by the Union cabinet is commendable,” Sanjay Sabherwal, chairman, CII Jharkhand, said here on Thursday.

He pointed out that the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 alters the agriculture marketing landscape in the country in several positive ways. “It provides dual benefits to the farmers by providing more avenues to sell their produce at better prices and also reducing their transportation costs significantly,” he explained.

Elaborating further Sabherwal said while competition will bring in transparent price discovery, the Act also provides for developing a price information and market intelligence mechanism for farmers’ produce and a framework for dissemination of that information. 

On the future of Minimum Support Price (MSP), he said, “What needs to be understood is that MSP is not a function of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act or the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (APLM) Act. Mandis only provide the physical infrastructure for facilitating the procurement operations and they will continue to do so for farmers that come to the APMC market.

“While the farmers in Punjab and Haryana are largely dependent on the MSP regime it needs to be understood the reform does not intend to demolish the MSP system but provide the right perspective of markets.”

Referring to the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 he said it provides a national framework on farming agreements. “The Act will help industry in terms of reducing uncertainty in the availability of farm produce while farmers will be benefited with assured prices as well as inputs and agronomic support,” he said.