Our agriculture not only needs modern technology and innovative methods to increase the yield and the output to feed millions as also to export but post harvesting such facilities which resulted in hassles free sale and receipt of proceeds thereof by the growers which again warrant employing the benefits of digital technology . The concepts of e-Mandis and e-NAM portals like modern marketing facilities are bound to helping farmers in tremendous ways chiefly to reduce chances of losses of selling their agricultural produce and avoiding distress sales. It will be vastly agreed that to fight the problem of liquidity from one harvest to the other, payment of Rs. 2000 every four months or thrice in a year under Pradhan Mantri Kissan Samman Nidhi , and so far Rs.1721 crore having been provided to the farmers of the UT , the compulsions to go in for distress sale stand reduced to a larger extent. Even when there was a phenomenon of over production , better sale alternatives proved a shield against incurring losses by the growers. It is heartening to note, therefore, that the UT of Jammu and Kashmir too is embarking upon bringing the required reforms in the process of procurement so that not only the best remunerative price was offered to the growers of their produce but the unwanted and unwarranted role of middlemen and commission agents got eliminated who were interested only in their pound of flesh first, to the detriment of the prospects of better sale proceeds of the farmers. Since looking to the universal fragility of the agricultural produce which requires among other things , timely and speedy lifting of the produce from the fields and Mandis to avoid damages and hence losses, e- procurement is the best solution which has been made available in 20 Paddy Procurement Centres or Mandis in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. A new beginning , indeed , in the system of procurement . Not only paddy but even wheat procurement having been brought under the new digital system means more farmers getting benefits . The move can safely be seen a grand step towards ensuring increase in farmers’ income and thus bringing in overall development of the rural sector via agricultural reforms as the new procurement system is a reform over the existing one. Now, any farmer can be in a position to know one’s procurement status just through the concerned AP – Paddy Procurement Dashboard for purchase of paddy. More importantly, payment status would be known through the said AP which the Lieutenant Governor has promised and assured the growers to be made within 72 hours, one of the fastest in the country and for which otherwise the farmers had to waste enough time and energy visiting offices and meeting officials. Again, the payment being made direct into the growers’ accounts under the DBT system preempts any chances of pilferage of various hues. Needless to add, two main apprehensions innocently or deliberately floated with reference to the three farm laws passed by the Parliament last year at least in respect of abolishing of Mandis and doing away with the procurement and Minimum Support Price (MSP) must be removed as neither of the two has been abolished, instead modern touches of digitization and transparency, all in the interests of the farming community have been introduced which if not immediately but with the passage of time and on making comparative analysis, farmers will find most advantageous for them. Most of the farmers still do not possess valid land record documents establishing a valid title for various reasons which again was, perhaps, one of the ways to exploit the interests of the farmers .The said scenario is now sought to be changed as the farmers are sure to be provided with relevant land record documents . It may be recalled that for this purpose proper searches and identifications of land related details are being done by drones through remote sensing data system in the country heralding mass digitization of rural land records. Gone are the days when a farmer could not establish one’s land ownership except by a stone wall or a small boundary . Advance registration having started in Jammu and Kashmir on the online portal for getting land record documents by the farmers means work having started in that direction. Reforms, innovations , digital technology , better and hassles free marketing facilities and new thinking coupled with changed mindset are all needed to bring in all round progress in our agriculture sector, no two opinions about that.
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