Seeds sown for farm reforms

Reacting to Agarwal’s statement, Dhruv M Shawney, CMD of Triveni Engineering & Industries, said the Centre should persuade the states to implement the reforms and bring the unwilling states into line by withholding grants. He also suggested that the states be given an additional subsidy if mandi tax and cess were to be abolished.

At the summit, experts present approved of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) draft on agricultural reforms, and urged the CII to motivate both the states and the Centre on speedy implementation.

Among the measures suggested were easy flow of credit in rural areas, establishment of Nabard delivery outlets in rural areas for direct loans to farmers and agro-processors, non-regulation of interest rates on farm loans, revamping of regional rural banks, private participation in developing wastelands, fiscal benefits for rural and farm sector investors, reduction in import duty on items of need for the processing industry, formulation of integrated food laws, pledge financing, making warehouse receipts as a negotiable instrument in trade, accreditation of warehouses, setting up of competitive markets and implementation of grading and standardisation norms.

Stressing the need for commodity futures, ITC chairman Yogesh C Deveshwar said that application of IT can help the farmers in price discovery. He said that his organisation has so far set up 2,500 IT portals — each costing Rs 3 lakh — throughout the country.