-The Hindu Business Line Proposes single trading licence, single-point levy of market fee New Delhi: The Agriculture Ministry has come up with a new model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act proposing single-point levy of market fee across a State and a united single trading licence for cost-effectiveness of transactions. It has also suggested abolition of fragmentation of market with the State/Union Territory by removing the concept of notified market area insofar as...

-The Indian Express Integration of spot and derivatives markets for farm produce via e-NAM can be a potential game-changer There isn’t much from the recent Union Budget as far as new ideas for agriculture goes, yet it sends out a couple of signals suggesting the Narendra Modi government’s intent to integrate farmers better with the markets. One such signal is the proposal to come out with a ‘model law’ on contract farming for...

-The Tribune Demonetisation didn’t overly impact the sector, but devitalisation is a concern THERE has been a lot of speculation about the extent of damage due to demonetisation on agriculture. Small farmers suffered most because cash in hand means a lot to them. They were unable to pay for inputs like fertilisers, seeds and farm labour and experienced low demand for their perishable produce. The latest data from government’s agricultural ministry however...

-Livemint.com Farmers are getting paid for their produce by traders either by cheque, but many farmers are not able to encash the cheques due to currency shortages at banks Mumbai: Nearly three weeks after the partial demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes, cashless contracts are running the trade at Maharashtra’s major agricultural markets, but problems with bank liquidity persist. Farmers are getting paid for their produce by traders either by cheque or via...

-The Hindu Centre relaxes curbs, allows farmers to buy seeds with old Rs. 500 notes. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley directed commercial bank chiefs on Monday to focus their attention on rural India’s cash crunch over the next 40 days, with a war chest of Rs. 35,000 crore for providing credit to farmers by December. The Centre also relaxed its demonetisation policy for high-value currency notes further by allowing farmers to buy seeds...