1. The move will ensure that the food items, including cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onion and potato get deregulated.
2. She also announced new funds for fisheries, dairy development, herbal plantation and livestock vaccination.
3. As much as Rs 10,000 crore will be provided for fishermen through Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
(File Photo)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced that the government will amend the six-and-a-half-decade old Essential Commodities Act to enable better price realisation for the farmers.
The move will ensure that the food items, including cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onion and potato get deregulated, the minister said as she presented the third tranche of the 20 lakh crore stimulus package.
The Essential Commodities Act, 1955 was enacted in the days of scarcity, the Sitharaman said. The stock limit will be imposed only under very exceptional circumstances like national calamities, famine with a surge in prices.
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The amendment, besides deregulating production and sale of food products, will provide for no stock limit to be imposed on any produce. Also, no stock limit shall apply to processors or value chain participants, she said.
Also, agriculture marketing reforms will be done to provide marketing choices to farmers.
She also announced new funds for fisheries, dairy development, herbal plantation and livestock vaccination.
She said Rs 15,000 crore Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund will be set up to support investment in dairy processing, value addition and cattle feed infrastructure.
To ensure 100 per cent vaccination of all livestock against foot and mouth disease (FMD) Rs 13,343 crore will be provided, she said.
As much as Rs 10,000 crore will be provided for fishermen through Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
For promoting herbal cultivation, Rs 4,000 crore National Medicinal Plants Fund will be started to help 10 lakh hectares to be covered under herbal cultivation.
Also, Operation Greens will be extended from tomato, onion and potato to all fruit and vegetables by providing 50 per cent subsidy on transportation and storage of these commodities, she said. It’s pilot project with be for six months.
For beekeepers, a Rs 500-crore scheme was announced for infrastructure development and post-harvest facilities. It is expected to help more than 2 lakh beekeepers in the country.
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