Ahluwalia calls for streamling agri policies

The Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that there is a need to provide a new direction to the agriculture sector in the country so that it can achieve a targeted growth rate of four per cent.

He further said that there is a need to review several laws concerning agri products and the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act is a good case for review.

Delivering the second D T Lakdawala lecture at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research at Ahmedabad recently, Ahluwalia said that almost all the necessary changes that need to be made in the legal framework to provide a new direction to the agriculture sector, have to be done at the state level.

"A lot of the existing laws related to agriculture need to be reviewed and to begin with, the APMC is a good case. I believe, we have still not refocussed our agriculture marketing mechanism to provide a new direction to the sector," Ahluwalia said.

Commenting on the APMC Act, Ahluwalia said that the concept of contract farming, where a corporate can deal directly with a farmer is discouraged in the act.

"The act, in its present form, gives arbitrary power to the states to interfere in trading. There ought to be a direct relationship between a corporate and a farmer in order to bring about a much faster growth in the sector.

He added that these issues might be a bit controversial in nature, but a lot will depend on the political will to bring about changes in the agriculture sector.

"The need of the hour is to diversify into either the co-operative model or the private corporate model for marketing of agri products. To be honest, we have not even scratched the surface yet of the vast opportunities that can be tapped in the sector," Ahluwalia stated.

It may be added that while a growth target of four per cent has been set for the agriculture sector, it has been growing at just around 1.5 per cent annually for the past 7-8 years.

Providing an impetus to the agro processing and allied industries, he said, "We have been thinking of setting up a National Horticulture Mission in the near future. This body will provide support in the form of budgetary allocation to those states that are willing to bring about changes in their set up to provide a boost to horticulture."