President Ram Nath Kovind gives approval to 3 Farm Bills passed by Parliament

On September 27, 2020 President Ram Nath Kovind approves 3 farm bills passed by Parliament:

• The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, 
• The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Bill, 2020 and 
• The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. 

With the President’s assent all Three Bills have now became Laws, and have been notified in the official gazette by the Law Ministry.

The Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020:

i.It aims to permit the sale of agricultural produce outside regions regulated by Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC), which is constituted by respective state legislations.

ii.It also permits electronic trading of farmer’s produce and for setting up of transaction platforms for buying and selling of farm products. 

iii.This will provide alternative trading channels for the farmers.

The Farmer’s (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Bill, 2020:

i.It provides for contract farming, through Farming Agreement before production or rearing of farm produce. 

ii.Guaranteed Price will be paid for purchase of farming produce and it will be mentioned in the Farming Agreement.

The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020:

i.This act deregulates production, supply, and distribution of food items like cereals, pulses, potatoes, onion and edible oilseeds. 

ii.It allows the Central Government to regulate supply only during extraordinary circumstances such as War and Famine. 

Key Points:

i.The act aims to create additional trading opportunities for the farmers outside the APMC Market. It will supplement the Minimum Support Price (MSP) procurement system. 

ii.The farmer can sell fruits, vegetables and additionally grains, sugarcane, mustard. They can sell it to anyone and anywhere according to their liking.

iii.It is expected to give more choice for the farmers, and will help them in getting better prices for their products.

President gives his approval to Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill

i.President Ram Nath Kovind also gave assent to Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020.

ii.This will make Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi, English and Urdu as Official Language of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Prior to this, Urdu and English were the official languages of Jammu & Kashmir.

iii.Jammu & Kashmir will now have 5 Official Languages.

Recent Related News:

i.On August 11, 2020, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar virtually launched the Krishi Megh (National Agricultural Research & Education System -Cloud Infrastructure and Services).

ii.On June 10, 2020 Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd(IFFCO) signs MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR) for joint research, testing and validation of different products through ICAR institutes and Krishi Vigyan Kendras(KVKs)

About Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
Union Minister – Narendra Singh Tomar
Minister of State (MoS) – Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, Kailash Choudhary