New Delhi: In a move aimed at protecting the rights of farmers, the government has come up with a robust legislation on contract farming. According to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, the new law, which is christened as "Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2018", would provide adequate confidence to farmers and incentives to the sponsors to enter into a contract.
While talking to Millennium Post, the Union Agriculture Minister said, "It's a major move which has been taken to safeguard the interest of farmers. In the new Act major focus has been given to resolving disputes of farmers."
"Given that the Act was not reviewed after some changes were made related to land leasing and other reforms in the legislation in 2003, the new Act has been prepared after taking on board all concerned stakeholders," Singh said, adding that the contract farming would not be under the ambit of APMC Act.
"The farmers were facing problems in resolving the disputes when the contract farming was under the ambit of APMC Act. Now, it has been removed from the APMC Act and now as per the new Act, farmers have been given more rights to approach the appellate authorities at the levels of block, tehsil to get their issues sorted out," Singh said.
In addition to contract farming, services contracts all along the value chain, including pre-production, production and post-production have also been included in the new Act.
In the new law, provisions such as registering and agreement recording committee, an officer for the purpose at district/block/taluka level for online registration of sponsor and recording of agreement has been incorporated, while contracted produce is to be covered under crop /livestock insurance in operation.
As per the new law, the sponsors have been restricted from establishing any permanent structure on farmers' land/premises and the sponsors would not claim any right on the farmer's land.
In response to a question on procuring produced products at MSP, Singh said, "The MSP is a different matter. The main issue is providing a transparent dispute settlement mechanism as the new Act has a provision for accessible and simple dispute settlement mechanism at the lowest level possible for quick disposal of disputes."
The new Act, which was approved on Tuesday at a meeting, chaired by Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, his juniors Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Purushottam Rupala and Krishna Raj, promotes the participation of Farmer Producer Organization (FPOs) as contracting parties if authorised by farmers.
Farmers have also hailed the new Act. Commenting on the decision, Ganesh Nanote, a farmer from Vidarbha region, said, "Any move of the government that would protect the interests of farmers would be hailed by farmers. The new contract law would help farmers selecting sponsors of their own choice."