September 24, 2023

Tannochbrae

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Draft law on regulation of fertilisers: Don’t criminalise farmers, ASHA tells Centre

The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) has opposed some provisions in the Draft Integrated Plant Diet Management Monthly bill, 2022 alleging that they choose away the legal rights of States and farmers.

Inquiring the Central federal government not to introduce any provision that could criminalise farmers, it desires a provision that enables farmers or other aggrieved get-togethers to search for authorized recourse if they are not glad with the appellate authority’s resolutions.

ASHA, a community of volunteers that seek out to endorse sustainable farm livelihoods and farmers’ legal rights in India, desired a system to allow the Condition governments to regulate the selling price, distribution and motion of fertilisers notified by them from time to time.

“It is important that bio-fertilisers, bio-stimulants and non-edible deoiled cakes are controlled by Condition governments to accommodate their individual problems,” it claimed.

In its comments to the draft floated by the Union Ministry of Fertilisers, ASHA also felt that farmers must be guarded from any inadvertent criminalisation and penalisation consequences.

“The restriction with regard to the use of fertilisers must exclude the farmers and really should not criminalise them in any way,” it explained.

A different procedure should be there for bio-stimulant, organic fertilisers, bio-fertilisers and non-edible de-oiled cakes, which incentivise localised production for localised distribution.

“This should really utilize to registration for manufacture as well as for actual sale, stocking and distribution of a sure set of fertilisers. This need to be squarely below the purview of Point out governments,” it included.

Referring to the provision that bars people today from production, advertising and promoting of fertilisers with out “obtaining the correct registration”, ASHA felt that the regulation must truly incentivise self-assistance groups, NGOs and pastoralists to create organic and natural fertilisers, bio-fertilisers, bio-promote and non-edible de-oiled cakes for community marketplaces.

Compensation

It wanted the govt to spell out payment mechanisms for aggrieved farmers (who ordered sub-regular, misbranded or spurious fertilisers) at the taluka-amount in the statute itself.

“Consumer Defense Act is not a suited statute in which farmers can hope to get justice, whilst the complete regulation of fertilisers is now getting proposed beneath this new statute,” it felt.

It would also call for a fund to just take treatment of payment of compensations to farmers.

It discovered fault with the provision that bars civil courts to have jurisdiction above the issues that occur underneath this Act, ASHA mentioned that there need to be a provision to allow for the aggrieved functions who are not glad with the appellate authority’s resolution.

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February 26, 2022