Contract farming: State asks officials to follow Central law

Agri department wants at least one contract signed in each district under the law

Salem, Tamil Nadu 14/10/2018: Story by SMS/ file picture: The government has fixed a target of 130 lakh metric tonnes of farm produce this year and the Agriculture Department has geared itself up to meet the target. The department has urged the farmers to adopt latest farm technologies to achieved increased yield, Salem district. Photo: E_Lakshmi Narayanan

The State Agriculture Department has asked its officials to follow the Central law on contract farming — Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance — and get at least one contract signed in each district initially.

Stating this, Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Agricultural Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Agriculture), told The Hindu on Friday that the Central legislation prevailed over the State law — Tamil Nadu Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Act of 2019. A few days ago, the Union government notified rules for the Ordinance on its gazette too.

Apart from giving a legal framework to an activity which has been largely unorganised, the Central law envisages the provision of integrated service delivery to farmers, dispute settlement mechanism and protection to purchasers.

The State government wants to bring under the fold of the law pacts between food processing industries (including those under food parks) and farmers for production and supply of assured quantities of raw materials at better prices than under normal circumstances, Mr. Bedi said.

According to the rules, in the event of disputes over farming agreements, the respective sub-divisional authority — sub-collectors in Tamil Nadu — should be approached first. If no conciliation process has been mentioned in the agreements, the sub-collectors will form conciliation boards.

A period of 30 days has been prescribed for settling the disputes. In case the boards are not able to thrash out the problems or parties to the dispute have failed to settle the issues under the conciliation process, as stipulated in the agreements, the sub-collectors can step in and give their decision within 30 days.

The appellate authority would be Collectors concerned or Additional Collectors nominated by the Collectors.

The rules also have stipulated proforma for application to the sub-divisional authority, memorandum of settlement and that of appeal to Collectors or Additional Collectors.