New Delhi: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said the new agriculture reforms will bring ease of living for farmers, particularly those living in far-flung, remote and hilly areas.
During an interaction with farmers, sarpanches, panches and local activists of panchayats falling under different blocks of Ramban and Udhampur districts in Jammu and Kashmir, he said the new farm legislation is a revolutionary new opening for the farming community, particularly for the farmers living in remote areas and border areas, who are faced with constraints of inaccessibility and lack of transport.
"The new arrangements will open up alternative options for them," said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.
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Many of the farmers in the past stored their crop after harvesting and waited for some middlemen to pick it up and carry it to the market because they did not have sufficient means or resources for that, he said.
However, under the new arrangement, the farmer will be able to avail the option of arranging a buyer through different sources or even entering into a contract agreement for farming, the minister said.
Contrary to the propaganda by the opposition parties that the Modi government is inclined to close down the existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) centres and mandis, Singh said, the matter of the fact is that the process of opening new centres is going on even today at different places depending upon the requirement and the demand, according to a Personnel Ministry statement.
However, he said, the young educated and tech-savvy agriculturist of today cannot be tied down by the earlier arrangement and deserves the freedom to exercise his option, the statement said.
PTI
