As the government prepares to rejuvenate the economy by easing the lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a meeting to take stock of reforms in the agriculture sector and discussed various measures, including development of ‘e-NAM into a platform of platforms’ to enable e-commerce and creation of commodity-specific boards or councils to boost agricultural exports. The high-level meeting, also attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, deliberated on the “pros and cons” of bio-technological developments in agriculture. The meeting comes at a time when reforms in the agriculture sector remain stuck. In July last year, the government constituted a nine-member high-powered committee of Chief Ministers with then Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis being appointed as convenor. The committee was supposed to submit its report within two months but it managed to do so only much later — the recommendations are yet to be made public. “PM Narendra Modi held a meeting today to deliberate on the issues and reforms required in the agriculture sector. Special emphasis was given on reforms in agriculture marketing, management of marketable surplus, access of farmers to institutional credit and freeing the agriculture sector of various restrictions with appropriate backing of statute,” the PMO said in a statement. “The focus was on making strategic interventions in the existing marketing eco-system and bringing appropriate reforms in the context of rapid agricultural development,” said statement. In a series of meetings this week, the Prime Minister has already reviewed several sectors such as power, education, civil aviation, defence, aerospace, coal and mining; and discussed strategies for boosting investment. The PMO stated, “Concessional credit flow to strengthen agriculture infrastructure, special Kisan Credit Card saturation drive for PM-Kisan beneficiaries and facilitating inter and intra-state trade of agriculture produce to ensure fairest returns to farmers were some of the important areas covered. Developing e-NAM into a platform of platforms to enable e-commerce was one of the important topics. Discussion also emanated on the possibilities of uniform statutory framework to facilitate new ways for farming which will infuse capital and technology in agrarian economy.”
