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Recommendations of NCF

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August 16, 2017

Why in news?

As India marks 50 years of green revolution, a look at the report of National Commission on Farmers becomes essential.

What is NCF?

  • The National Commission on Farmers was chaired by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan.
  • It submitted five reports through the period December 2004 - October 2006.
  • The report focused on causes of famer distresses and the rise in farmer suicides.
  • It proposed "faster and more inclusive growth" as the goal.

What are the major recommendations?

  • Land reforms - Distribute ceiling-surplus and waste lands.
  • Prevent diversion of prime agricultural land and forest for non-agricultural purposes.
  • Grazing rights and seasonal access to forests to tribals and pastoralists, and access to common property resources.
  • National Land Use Advisory Service to link land use decisions with ecological, meteorological and marketing factors.
  • Irrigation - Increasing water supply through rainwater harvesting and making recharge of the aquifer mandatory.
  • "Million Wells Recharge" programme, specifically targeted at private wells should be launched.
  • Substantial increase in investment in the irrigation sector.
  • Productivity - the per unit area productivity of Indian agriculture is much lower than other major crop producing countries.
  • A national network of advanced soil testing laboratories with facilities for detection of micronutrient deficiencies is recommended.
  • Promotion of conservation farming to conserve and improve soil health, water quantity and quality, and biodiversity.
  • Increase in public investment in agriculture related infrastructure such as  irrigation, drainage, land development, water conservation, research development, etc to ensure increased productivity.
  • Credit and Insurance - Expanding the outreach of the formal credit system and reducing the rate of interest for crop loans with government support.
  • Establishing an Agriculture Risk Fund to provide relief to farmers in the aftermath of successive natural calamities.
  • Cover all crops by crop insurance with the village and not block as the unit for assessment.
  • Developing an integrated credit-cum-crop-livestock-human health insurance package.
  • Creating a Rural Insurance Development Fund to take up development work for spreading rural insurance.
  • Institutional development services by strengthening producers' organisations such as self-help groups and water user associations can be taken up.
  • Food Security - the decline in per capita foodgrain availability and its unequal distribution have serious implications for food security in both rural and urban areas.
  • Eliminating micronutrient deficiency induced hidden hunger through an integrated food cum fortification approach.
  • Formulating a National Food Guarantee Act and continuing the useful features of the Food for Work and Employment Guarantee programmes.
  • Farmers' Suicides - State level Farmers' Commission with representation of farmers for ensuring dynamic government response to farmers' problems.
  • Low risk and low cost technologies to provide maximum income to farmers to cope with the shock of crop failure.
  • Price Stabilisation Fund in place to protect the farmers from price fluctuations.
  • Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs)  to serve as guidance centres on all aspects of agricultural and non-farm livelihoods.
  • Public awareness campaigns to make people identify early signs of suicidal behaviour.
  • Agricultural competitiveness - Promotion of commodity-based farmers' organisations such as Small Cotton Farmers' Estates.
  • This will combine decentralised production with centralised government services for leveraging institutional support and facilitating direct farmer-consumer linkage.
  • State Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Acts [APMC Acts] should work for the development of domestic and international markets for local produce, and move towards a Single Indian Market.
  • Employment - Despite structural change in the workforce, agriculture still provides the bulk of employment in the rural areas of India.
  • Creating productive employment opportunities and improving the quality of employment in several sectors such that real wages rise through improved productivity.
  • The "net take home income" of farmers should be comparable to those of civil servants.
  • Emphasizing on relatively more labour intensive sectors.
  • Encouraging non-farm employment opportunities by developing particular sectors and sub-sectors.
  • Bioresources - Rural people in India depend on a wide range of bioresources for their nutrition and livelihood security. 
  • Preserving traditional rights of access to biodiversity and encouraging community-based breed conservation.
  • Finally, the NCF recommends that Agriculture which is under the State List be inserted in the Concurrent List of the Constitution.

 

Source: PRS India

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