-Down to Earth The ordinance does not expressly define ‘extraordinary circumstances’: Such legislative ambiguity makes one question the entire exercise of introducing this particular provision As the Union government announced massive reforms as part of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package, attention went to three agriculture sector ordinances related to farmers’ trade, Contract Farming and amendments in the Essential Commodities Act. While each of the three ordinances have far-reaching implications from legal...
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Why Punjab stands to lose from farmers’ produce trade and commerce ordinance -Parikshit Goyal
-Down to Earth Instead of putting Punjab farmers at the mercy of big corporates and private players, there is a need to strengthen existing infrastructure The Union government announced three agriculture-related ordinances as part of its novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package — permitting agricultural trade outside the boundaries of market committees, easing regulation and control under the Essential Commodities Act and facilitating Contract Farming. Out of these, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and...
More »Some Key Questions That Need to Be Answered About the Three Agriculture Ordinances -Nikhit Kumar Agrawal
-TheWire.in The text of the ordinances raises some questions about their stated objective to ‘free up’ curbs on trade and help farmers get a remunerative price for their crop. Recently, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government introduced three ordinances to bring in far-reaching agricultural ‘reforms’ in the country. Taken together, these ordinances intend to liberalise the regulatory system in the agriculture sector, provide freedom to farmers and traders to trade in farm...
More »Crop of ironies -Madhurika Sankar
-The Hindu Food security and farmer welfare are intertwined It is ironic that it took a devastating pandemic to force the government’s hand for long-overdue agrarian reforms. Amendments have been made to the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The Finance Minister has urged States to dismantle the Agricultural Produce Market Committees. Several long-term changes have been made to the agricultural sector, such as fair pricing and e-trading, along with liquidity measures. The Centre...
More »Will India's Contract Farming Ordinance Be a Corporate Lifeline for Agriculture? -Siraj Hussain
-TheWire.in Even though India has had a few relatively successful models, Contract Farming has failed to take off in a meaningful manner. Of the three agriculture-related ordinances promulgated on June 5, 2020, the most predictable was ‘The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020’. Put simply, it provides a legal basis to the existing practice of Contract Farming in India’s agriculture and allied sectors. In 2018, the Union...
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