Page 21 - NIS English October 1-15

TRANSFORMING

FARMERS INTO

ENTREPRENEURS

Agriculture being reinvented as an industry
and farmers, freed from the clutches of the middlemen, are

striding on the path of prosperity and Self-Reliance, which is a must
concomitant of a Self-Reliant India. The Government is committed to mitigate
the plight of farmers with measures such as higher Minimum Support Price

which is one-and-a-half times the cost of production so as to double the
farmers’ income by 2022 and transferring nearly Rs 7 Lakh Crore directly
to the accounts of around 10 Crore farmers in the next 10 years. After ‘One

Nation One Tax’, ‘One Nation One Ration Card’, and ‘One Nation One Test’ for
Government jobs, the Government has demonstrated its unabated zeal for
reforms by introducing ‘One Nation One Market’ for agriculture sector

The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation)

Bill, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of
Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill are the biggest agriculture
reforms in the country so far

hen a monetary benefit is extended to farmers or to the poor, the arm-chair
economists disparage it as a 'subsidy'. However, if a similar benefit given to industry
or commerce, it is glowingly lauded as an "incentive" or a "subvention". Does this
Wdifference in language also reflect a difference in attitude? PM expressed these
views in a programme of a media house on January 30, 2016, and the next day to a delegation of
farmers. This reflects his positive concern for farmers.
In pursuing the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the farming community, the
Government has got the two Bills passed in Parliament brushing aside the agenda-driven
propaganda of misinformation and lies. These Bills have, at one stroke, demolished the nexus of
Mandi and middlemen and will give the real freedom to farmers from the shackles of middlemen.
After the Prime Minister announced One Nation One Market initiative from the ramparts of the
Red Fort in 2016, he ensured that it did not remain merely an announcement but soon transformed

New India Samachar 19