National Agriculture Market NAM

Model APMC Act 2003

The State/UT Agricultural Produce and Livestocks Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Act 2017

Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance 2020

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd NAFED

Soil Health Card Scheme

Under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare launched in February 2015.

Under the scheme soil cards are issued to farmers which carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs.
All soil samples are tested in various soil testing labs across the country.
Thereafter the experts analyse the strength and weaknesses (micro-nutrients deficiency) of the soil and suggest measures to deal with it.
The result and suggestion are displayed in the cards.
A farm will get the soil card once in every 2 years so that nutrients deficiency can be regularly detected and improved.

Soil samples are tested w.r.t 12 parameters

Macro nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K);
Secondary nutrient: Sulphur (S); [NOTE: Not Calcium and Magnesium]
Micro nutrients: Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Boron (B);
Physical parameters: pH, EC (electrical conductivity), OC (organic carbon).

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

Around 22 crore soil health cards have been distributed
Increased Yield: A study conducted by the National Productivity Council (NPC) says the application of Soil Health Card recommendations has led to a decline of 8-10% in use of chemical fertilizers and also raised productivity by 5-6%
It is estimated that cost of cultivation is decreased by 20% in rice and by 15% in pulses and oil seeds
Savings in fertilizers: For rice, savings of nitrogen fertilizer was 20 kg/acre and for pulses it is 10 kg/acre

Interest Subvention Scheme

To make agricultural credit for short term crop loans at an affordable rate to give a boost to agricultural productivity and production in the country
Upto 3 lakhs
Interest rate 7 percent. If repayment in time, 3 percent incentive implies net 4 percent effective interest
Further 2 percent subvention is also provided on agri loans on account of natural calamities.
It is implemented by NABARD and RBI
Also, provides post-harvest loans for up to 6 months to avoid distress sale
Interest subvention scheme will be given to Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and to NABARD for refinance to RRBs and Cooperative Banks.

Kisan Credit Card Scheme

Introduced in 1988 by NABARD on the recommendation of RV Gupta Committee

Includes

To meet the short term credit requirements for cultivation of crops;
Post-harvest expenses;
Produce marketing loan;
Consumption requirements of farmer household;
Working capital for maintenance of farm assets and activities allied to agriculture;
Investment credit requirement for agriculture and allied activities. (Term loans)

Applicability

Commercial Banks, RRBs & DCCBs/ PACS [District Cooperative Central Bank]

Eligibility:

All farmers-individuals/Joint borrowers who are owner cultivators.
Tenant farmers, Oral lessees and Share Croppers etc.
SHGs or Joint Liability Groups of farmers including tenant farmers, share croppers etc.,
Extend to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers to help them meet their working capital needs.

Features

Coverage of KCC holders under PAIS Personal Accident Insurance Scheme, Atal Pension Yojana
The Kisan Credit Card should be valid for 5 years subject to an annual review.
Interest rate: 7% interest on short term credit with an upper limit of Rs. 3.0 lakh on principal amount
Repayment period : (Revolving cash credit means repayment time calculated from when loan taken)

Short Term credit/crop loans	12 months	Revolving cash credit
Working capital for agri & allied activities	12 months	Revolving cash credit
Term loan	5 years or extended by banks discretion

Delivery channels

Withdrawal through ATMs / Micro ATM
Withdrawal through BCs using smart cards.
PoS machine through input dealers
Mobile Banking with IMPS capabilities/ IVR
Aadhaar enabled Cards.

National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology

To make the extension system farmer-driven and farmer-accountable by way of new institutional arrangements for technology dissemination
Introduced under the umbrella of Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA)
4 sub-schemes:

Sub Mission on Agricultural Extension (SMAE)
Sub Mission on Seed and Planting Material (SMSP)
Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM)
Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine (SMPP)

The Sub Missions have been separated for administrative purposes however they are interlinked at field level

Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation

It aims to promote agricultural mechanization among small and marginal farmers and in the areas where the level of mechanization and availability of power is very low
Components

Promotion and Strengthening of Agricultural Mechanization through training, testing and demonstration
Demonstration, training and distribution of Post-Harvest Technology and Management (PHTM)
Financial Assistance for Procurement of Agriculture Machinery and Equipment
Establish Farm Machinery Bank for Custom Hiring
Promotion of Farm Mechanization and Equipment in North-Eastern Region

Subsidy is provided @ of 40% of the project cost to individual farmer upto a project cost of Rs.60 lakh and 80% to the group of farmers up to a project cost of Rs. 10 lakh.
Custom Hiring Centres (CHC) are promoted under this scheme
‘Promotion Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi

To address air pollution due to crop burning

Essential Commodities Act, 1955

To ensure the easy availability of essential commodities to consumers and to protect them from exploitation by unscrupulous traders
Act provides for the regulation and control of production, distribution and pricing of commodities which are declared as essential.
State Governments are fully empowered under the Act to regulate production, distribution, supply and prices of the food items which are declared as essential commodities in the respective States.
The list of essential commodities is reviewed from time to time with reference to their production and supply
Current scenario

Currently, the restrictions like licensing requirement, stock limits and movement restrictions have been removed from almost all agricultural commodities.
Rice, Wheat, Pulses, edible oils and edible oilseeds are the exceptions, where States have been permitted to impose some temporary restrictions in order to contain price increase of these commodities.
The pricing of sugarcane is governed by the statutory provisions of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 issued under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955
The manufacture, sale, and distribution of fertilizers in the country is regulated by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020

Amends Essential Commodities Act, 1955
Deregulation of commodities such as cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions and potatoes.
Central Govt may regulate over certain food items only in case of extra ordinary circumstances - war, famine, extraordinary price rise, nature calamity of grave nature

Before this ordinance, commodities present in essential list are regulated over production, distribution, pricing
NOTE: Before amendment, State Govts are empowered to regulate but now it is only Central Govt

This will not apply to Govt orders related to PDS
Fertilizers regulation is untouched in this act. It means it remains essential.

Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020

Objective: To enable contract farming
Farming agreements

Can be made before production b/w farmers and sponsors
Agreement may provide for mutually agreed terms and conditions for supply, quality, standards and price of farming produce as well as terms related to supply of farm services.
Agreement may be linked to insurance services
Agreement must mention prices to be paid for farming purchase

Sale, lease or mortgage of farmers’ land is totally prohibited and farmers’ and is also protected against any recovery.
State government may establish a registration authority for registering farming agreements
Farming agreements will be exempt from stock limits and state acts regulating sale and purchase of farming produce.
Dispute settlement: first conciliation, then settlement and appeal

Model Contract Farming Act 2018

Ensures buying of entire pre-agreed quantity of contract farming produce as per contract in its framework for contract agreement.
It guides the contracting parties to fix pre-agreed price
It makes provisions to decide sale-purchase price in case of violent movement (upswing / downswing) of market price vis-à-vi pre-agreed price as a win-win framework
It provides for a contract farming facilitation group at village level to take quick and need based decision.
It provides to keep contract farming outside the ambit of APMC act
It creates a dispute settlement mechanism at the lowest possible level for quick disposal of disputes.
It sets up Contract Farming (Development and Promotion) Authority.
Registering and Agreement Recording Committee at local level to register contracts
The produce will be insured under the existing agriculture insurance schemes.
The model act also make provisions for making farmer producer organisations(FPOs) under which a sort of cooperatives of small and marginal farmers will be formed.
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 bars the transfer of ownership of and raising permanent structures on the farmer land to sponsor companies under all circumstances

Limits of stockholding of agricultural produce will not be applicable on produce purchased under 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

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act, 1985

Established Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority APEDA
Works under Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Mandate

Promotion of export oriented production and development of the Scheduled products;
Development of industries relating to the scheduled products for export by way of providing financial assistance
Fixing of standards and specifications for the scheduled products for the purpose of exports
Carrying out inspection of meat and meat products in slaughter houses, processing plants, storage premises, conveyances or other places where such products are kept or handled for the purpose of ensuring the quality of such products;
Improving of packaging & marketing of scheduled products
Training

Agri Export Zones AEZ

Established in 2001 by Ministry of Commerce

To converge the efforts of central and state governments to increase agro-exports
AEZ concentrates on a particular produce/ product located in a geographically contiguous area (e.g. Mango in Chittur District of Andhra) and coordinates the ongoing Central-State schemes to cover the entire value chain from farm to the foreign consumer, including sorting, grading, packaging, processing, exporting

ICAR Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Autonomous society registered under Societies Registration Act 1860 under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare
The Council is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country
Breeder Seeds is produced by ICAR in India
Pusa Krishi App

Developed by ICAR
Information to farmers about

The varieties of products available to farmers
Technology that can be used to yield better crops
Information about produce and the region it is best suited
Information about animal feed and biofertilizers

Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)

It is a basic unit and smallest co-operative credit institutions in India. It works on the grassroots level (gram panchayat and village level).

Farmers Clubs FCs

Grass root level informal fora for farmers
Promoted by NABARD and organized by the rural branches of banks, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), etc
The major objective is to promote “Development through credit, technology transfer, awarenes and capacity building” of the farmers

Farmer Producing Companies FPC/ Farmer Producing Organisations FPO

NABARD floated the concept of FPO/FPC
It is a hybrid between cooperative societies and private limited companies which provides for sharing of profits/benefits among the members.
Registered under Companies Act and is a legal entity
Features

It is formed by a group of producers for either farm or non-farm activities
A part of the profit is shared amongst the producers and rest of the surplus is added to its owned funds for business expansion.

NABARD will extend support to the producers’ organizations by providing term loan a working capital, support to capacity building and help in the creation of marketing linkages.
NABARD initiated the Producer Organisation Development Fund (PODF) and Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) has set up nearly 250 FPOs since 2011.

PRODUCE Fund Producers Organisation Development Fund and Upliftment Corpus - 200 crore corpus - during 2014-15

To strengthen their capital base, SFAC has launched a new Central Sector Scheme “Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Farmers Producer Companies

Note: It is central sector scheme but not Central Sponsored Scheme

FPC exempted from taxation

FPCs registered under the Companies Act, having an annual turnover up to ₹ 100 crore, need not pay tax on profits derived from farm-related activities
for a period of five years from the next financial year

By 2019, there are around 26000 Farmer Producer Organisation in India
Budget 2020-21 envisioned for formation of 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisation (FPOs)

Scheme 'Formation and Promotion of Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)' for above

Producer Organisation Development Fund

By NABARD
The main purpose of this fund is to support comprehensively the various producer organizations in different forms across the country.

Ashok Dalwai Committee

Committee on Doubling Farmers income
Report titled Structural Reforms and Governance Framework
Recommendations

Focus on "demand-driven fork-to-farm approach", diversification towards high value crops etc (Table (dining) to farm)
Additional investment of Rs 6.39 lakh crore is required from both public and private sectors to double farmer income
Need of developing financial & other infrastructure in less developed states of eastern region which lags in private investment
Stepping up institutional credit on large scale
Focus on exports with an aim to raise agricultural export to reach $100 billion by 2022-23 and going beyond cereals and meat which constitutes bulk of our exports at present
Improve Institutional Arrangement/Overhaul of the Union agriculture ministry

Agricultural marketing should be in concurrent list (which is now in state list)
Greater private sector participation in agri-marketing and logistics
Encourage farmer producer and village producer organisati ons

Kisan Seva Kendras

Setup by Oil Marketing Companies such as IOCL
They are low cost retail outlet in rural/agricultural market in order to deliver diesel and other petroleum products at the doorsteps of farmers
They also provide allied facilities like Micro ATM, Convenience Store, Fertilizers/Pesticides, farm equipments etc. depending upon the buying habits and preference of the local rural customers
These are intended to cater to the needs of farmers, agriculturists and other consumers of petrol and diesel in the rural areas

Agri Laws & Governance