Farm Bills will open new avenues for farmers of NE : Rijiju

GUWAHATI, Oct 1
Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said that the Farm Bill will open new avenues for the farmers of North East India.
Rijiju who was in Guwahati on Thursday said that that the three Agriculture Bills that have recently been passed in the Parliament have been the biggest ever agricultural reforms for the welfare of the farmers of the country since independence.
He added, “Farmers of North East will be the biggest beneficiaries of this new Agricultural Bills brought by the Government. This will give freedom to the farmers and give them a choice to sell their crop anywhere in the country. Complete freedom has been given to the farmers as there are no restrictions in selling their produce, he added.
Rijiju said that the farmers will get mandatory support from the State to strengthen the farm sector and to get more production. This amendment will create a positive environment not only for farmers but also for consumers and investors and will help the country to become self-reliant, he added.
Rijiju said that these reforms have removed all manipulative roles of middlemen which will very much benefit the farmers. Rijiju also took part in a seminar on the Empowerment of Farmers where Agricultural Experts, farmers, intellectuals and officials of the Department of Agriculture, Assam Government attended.
Union Minister of State for Food Processing Rameswar Teli said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking various steps for the benefit of the farmers and as part of this, the Farm Bills which have been passed will provide sufficient safeguards to the farmers for the sale of crops anywhere as per their choice. In addition to mandis, farmers will get freedom to do trading at farm gates, cold storage, warehouse, processing units etc.
He said, “Subsidy will be provided for transportation of produce of the farmers from elsewhere to Northeast India.”
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal welcomed the step taken by the Union Government for the empowerment of the farmers and added that these new Acts will highly benefit the farmers of Assam as well as the farmers of the rest of the country. The new legislation will enable the farmer to access modern technology, better seed and other inputs. It will reduce the cost of marketing and improve income of farmers, he added.
The Chief Minister also said that the State Government has taken steps to develop the agricultural sector in the State by providing tractors to 14,000 villages with a target of equipping all 26,000 villages with a tractor each and facilitating air cargo service through which State’s farmers can export their products to the international market. Because of proactive roles played by both Central and State Governments Assam’s educated youths have now started taking agriculture as a means of livelihood as they have seen tremendous prospect in the sector including fishery, piggery, dairy farming etc.
Recently Parliament passed, Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020.