Sr. No.

Item

 Status for October 2004

1.

Farmers will be given greater say in the organizations that supply inputs to the.

(a)   Seeds

The Government has appointed three farmers as non official members on Central Seed Committee and five farmers as non official members in Central Seed Certification Board. Similar exercise is being done for National Seeds Corporation and State Farms Corporation and state Farms corporation of India . All State Government has been advised to ensure greater participation of the farmers in the Board supplying inputs.

Fertilizers

Under this Department there are 2 cooperative societies namely IFFCO & KRIBHCO involved in manufacturing and marketing of fertilizers. These are essentially farmer centric organizations and has adequate representation of farmers on their Board of Directors. Department of Fertilizers have been requested to nominate farmers representative in the public sector fertilizer units.  

Credit

(a) Credit to farmers is provided by commercial banks, RRBs and Co-operative banks. Co-operative banks are basically owned and manages by the farmer members. Action in respect of ensuring farmer’s representation on the Board of Directors of public sector banks, RRBs and NABARD had to be taken by the Ministry of Finance.

(b)  There should be a Standing Committee on Farmers Representatives to advice the Ministry on a regular basis.

Farmers and NGOs are invariably consulted in wide ranging matters. Recently they were consulted for formulation of Seed Bill 2004.

Farmers, They were also consulted by the Task Force headed by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.

(c)   The report of task Force on Biotechnology Application in Agriculture should be put on the website for inviting public opinion. Discussion could also be held with non-governmental organizations working in the area like Gene Campaign.

The Task force on Bio-Technology application in Agriculture held wide ranging discussions with Non-Governmental Organizations, farmer groups, media persons and representatives of State Governments. The report of the group has been widely publicized. The report is also available on website of Department of Agriculture & Cooperation. The website address is www.agricoop.nic.in. 

2.

The UPA Government will bring forward a Constitutional Amendment to ensure the democratic, autonomous and professional functioning of Cooperatives.

DOAC has decided to bring forward amendment to the Constitution to ensure democratic autonomous and professional functioning of cooperatives. State Government and different Department pf Central Government are being consulted.

Ministry of Finance has constituted a Task Force to suggest an appropriate regulatory framework for ensuring the right to autonomous management and independent professional audit of the credit cooperatives. Finance Minister recently announced series of measures for enhancing agriculture credit flow And providing credit related relief to the farmers. This is being followed up with Ministry of Finance and NABARD,

3.

Crop and livestock insurance scheme will be made more effective.

A Joint Group on Crop Insurance Scheme has been constituted in August 2004. It has held series of meetings and interacted with ISRO, National Insurance Academy and India Metrological Department and many private insurance companies. The Group is likely to submit its report around 30^th November 2004 . 

4.

The UPA Government will introduce a special programme for dry land farming in the arid and semi-arid regions of the country.

Feasibility report from NABARD is awaited.

5.

The UPA Government will ensure that adequate protection is provided to all farmers from imports, particularly when international prices fall sharply.

Subsequent to removal of quantitative restrictions on imports in 2001, the Government has increased import duties on a number of agricultural products to provide adequate protection to the domestic farmers. The import duties on wheat, rice, maize, edible oils, pulses, cotton, spices, tea, coffee, areca nut, apple have been increased in the last 5 years. The import duty on refined palm oil has been increased to 75% in the Budget 2004-05.

The import of sensitive agricultural commodities is being continuously monitored by a Committee chaired by commerce secretary on regular basis.

In the on-going negotiation on Agreement on Agriculture of WTO, the Government is making all efforts to maintain necessary protection to the domestic producers from subsidized imports. Efforts are also being made to secure more markets for export of India agricultural products

6.

The UPA Government will ensure that public investment in rural infrastructure is stepped up in a significant manner at the very earliest. The UPA will pay special attention to augmenting and modernizing rural infrastructure consisting of irrigation; cold-chain; and marketing outlets.

Under the Central Sector Scheme of Construction of Rural Godowns, subsidy is provided on budgetary cost of the storage project to persons belonging to private and cooperative sectors. Since March 2001, 4051 storage projects have been sanctioned to create 104.9 lakh MTs of storage capacity in the country.

Another Central Sector Scheme namely Development of Marketing infrastructure Grading and Standardization is being implemented to induce large investments from private and cooperative sectors in this field. Assistance is being given to various States.

1134 number of project have been sanctioned by National Horticulture Board with 46.73 lakh MTs of cold storage capacity has been created for horticulture produce.

Another project like micro irrigation is being formulated for covering 3 million ha. Under micro/sprinkler irrigation scheme during the coming three years of current Plan.

A National Horticulture Mission is also proposed to be launched during the Xth plan to address the issues for ensuring end to end approached having backward and forward linkages covering research, production, post harvest management, processing and marketing.