In order to protect the interests of farmers and boost agriculture exports, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar has called for a review of regulations under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA). The Act seeks to regulate the production, supply and distribution of commodities that the government declares 'essential' in order to ensure its availability to people at fair price. The list of such essential commodities include drugs, fertilisers, pulses and edible oils, and petroleum and petroleum products.
Kumar said that organic or natural farming is the sunrise sector of Indian agriculture and exports from this sector have risen significantly and have great potential for growth. He also urged the agricultural scientists to evaluate organic or natural farming on merit. He said ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) will meet our food security requirements and lead to a healthier and wealthier India.’ Besides, he stressed that soil degradation was taking place rapidly, and organic or natural farming was the only way to reverse this. He noted that it is essential to increase the share of ZBNF in Indian agriculture and urged all farmers to examine how they can move away from the use of chemicals in agriculture and adopt zero budget natural farming practices.
Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman further said ‘today, India is foodgrain surplus. If we improve our post production value chain, our foodgrain surplus shall be efficiently utilized. We have to improve on labour productivity and yield in all crops, and focus on capacity building of farmers. Our costs must be globally competitive. We need a second green revolution to increase farmer income and double exports.’