Farm bills are biggest reforms in agriculture sector: Kiren Rijiju

Guwahati, Oct 1: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said the three farm reform bills passed by Parliament are the "biggest reforms" in the agriculture sector since Independence and farmers of the North East will be its biggest beneficiaries.

These bills have been brought by the government to give freedom to the farmers and the choice to sell their crop anywhere in the country, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Sports and Youth Affairs said at a press conference here.

"Complete freedom has been given to the farmers with no restrictions in selling their produce anywhere and the farmers will get mandatory support from the state to strengthen the farm sector to increase production", Rijiju said. 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.

Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to double the farmers income by 2022, Rijiju said that these reforms have removed all manipulation of middlemen which will very much benefit the farmers. Union Minister of State for Food Processing, Rameswar Teli, who also addressed the press conference, said that the Prime Minister has taken various steps for the benefit of the farmers and the farm bills are a part of it which will provide sufficient safeguards to the farmers for the sale of crops anywhere as per their choice.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal welcomed the step taken by the Union Government for the empowerment of the farmers and said that these new farm bill will highly benefit the farmers of Assam as well as the farmers of the rest of the country.

The bills will enable the farmer to access modern technology, better seed and other inputs as well as reduce the cost of marketing and improve the income of farmers, he added.

The three bills passed by the Parliament are the 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.

Rijiju also participated in a seminar on the Empowerment of Farmers where experts, farmers and officials of the Assam Agriculture Department attended.