 bill no 171 of  2014 the  farmers (protection, prevention of suicides and welfare) bill,  2014 by shri nishikant dubey, mp a billto provide for the protection of farmers from exploitation by moneylenders, middlemen, unscrupulous traders; increasing farm yield by improving farming practices by modern  techniques and allied occupations, extending protective umbrella against natural calamities by taking up of welfare measures to prevent the distressed farmers from committing suicide and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fifth  year of  the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the the farmers (protection, prevention of suicides and welfare) act, 2014short title, extent  and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of indiadefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—54 of 19665(a) "agricultural produce" include paddy, wheat, coarse cereals, pulses, sugarcane, gram, cotton, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, jute, coconut, tobacco, areca nuts and such other agricultural produces which may be notified from time to time by the central government and also seed as defined in the seeds act, 1966;(b) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in all other cases, the central government;(c) "bumper crop" means the excess yield of any agricultural produce not commensurate with its cost of production;10(d) "farmer" means a person who owns land and cultivates or causes it to be cultivated for agricultural or horticulture purposes and includes small and marginal farmers as identified by the appropriate government;(e) "fund" means the national farmers natural calamity and welfare fund established under section 3;15(f) "natural calamity" includes drought, flood, cyclone, hailstorm, extreme cold and frost, winterkill, tsunami, storm, fire, excessive rains, snow, damages caused by wild life, insect infestation of large scale magnitude, plant diseases and such other natural phenomenon as may be notified from time to time, by the appropriate government;(g) "old age farmer" means a farmer who has completed sixty years of age; and20(h) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act25constitution of the national farmers natural calamity welfare fund3 (1) the central government shall, as soon as may be, but not later than six months from the commencement of this act, constitute a national farmers natural calamity and welfare fund with an initial corpus of rupees fifty thousand crore to be provided by the central government, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, for carrying out the purposes of this act(2) the central government and state governments shall contribute to the fund in such proportion as may be prescribed(3) the fund shall also comprise moneys received from the general public, body corporate and financial institutions, domestic as well as foreign ones, as donations30(4) the fund shall be utilized for,—(a) paying adequate compensation to farmers affected by natural calamity; (b) payment of pension to old age farmers;35(c) implementing special assistance package to be formulated by the appropriate government for the children of farmers, physically challenged or old age farmers and farmers affected by natural calamities;(d) extending educational facilities to the children of farmers and assistance for the marriage of their daughters;(e) making provision for food, drinking water, fodder and other basic necessities of day to day life in natural calamity affected rural areas;40(f) timely and adequate supply of quality seeds, manure, fertilizers and insecticides to farmers;(g) paying premiums of crop insurance of such poverty stricken farmers, as the appropriate government may specify;(h) providing healthcare facilities to the farmers and their families;(i) providing institutional mechanism for efficient marketing and export of farm produce; and(j) such other purposes as the central government may deem necessary or expedient for carrying out the purposes of this act5 (5) the fund shall be administered by the central government in such manner as may be prescribed4 (1) the central government shall, as soon as may be, in consultation with the  state governments, formulate a long-term action plan for the protection and welfare of farmers, with special focus on natural calamity prone areas10(2) in particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing  provisions, such action plan shall include,—central government to formulate long-term action plan for the protection andwelfare offarmers(a) comprehensive crop and livestock insurance scheme to make up the lossesof farmers due to natural calamity;(b) compulsory market intervention in case of bumper crop; (c) writing off loans and interest of the farmers affected by natural calamity;15(d) easy credit facility with interest free or nominal rate of interest from the banksand financial institutions;(e) remunerative prices for the agricultural produces;20(f) necessary welfare measures as may be deemed necessary to protect theexploited, indebted and poverty stricken farmers of the country;5 the appropriate government shall, in order to provide protective umbrella to the distressed, exploited, indebted and poverty stricken farmers, take the following measures—protective umbrella for farmers by the appropriate government25(a) compulsorily monitor the trend of agricultural production so as to haveestimate of  production, local consumption, purchases by government agencies, surplus, or any other incidental matter;(b) make affordable transportation arrangements to carry the surplus produceto identified areas where such produce is likely to be consumed and make marketingand yard facilities for such surplus agricultural production;30(c) ensure that farmers do not resort to distress sale in order to rein in theunscrupulous traders who exploit the farmers by not purchasing their yield by forming cartel for this purpose;(d) purchase the surplus produce through its agencies by extending compulsorymarket intervention;(e) fix the remunerative prices of agricultural produce from time to time;35(f) compulsory remove the middlemen operating in the wholesale and other marketsdealing with agricultural product;(g) study the requirements of farmers for promoting agriculture through agricultural education, research, training through modern krishi vigyan kendras, kisan call centres and agricultural universities;40(h) promote agro based industries like food processing, dairying, poultry, rearingof livestock, piggery and bee keeping to enhance farm income;(i) promote cultivation of vegetables, spices, floriculture, pisciculture, sericultureand  horticulture;(j) ensure easy institutional loans to remove indebtedness amongst farmers; and (k) extend such other protective measures to farmers as may be prescribedspecial policy for suicide prone areas6 (1) notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the central government shall formulate a special policy for regions of the country having high incidence of suicides by farmers to alleviate the sufferings of the exploited, indebted and poverty stricken farmers of such regions5(2) without prejudice to the generality of foregoing provisions, the special policy shall include—(a) direction to all the banks, including cooperative and regional rural banksand other financial institutions which disburse agricultural loans, to secure the interests of affected farmers;10(b) waiving of loans or concessions to be given to the farmers by banks andfinancial institutions in case, the farmers are unable to repay the amount;(c) prohibition on moneylenders in lending money to the farmers; (d) public employment to one of the dependents family member of a farmer whodies during occurrence of a natural calamity;15(e) adequate financial assistance to the family of the farmer in case of suicide byfarmer; and(f) such other measures, as may be necessary, for carrying out the purposes of this act207 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, provide requisite funds to the state governments for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide funds power to remove difficulty258 (1) if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the centralgovernment may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appears to it to be necessary or expedient for the removal of the difficulty:provided that no such order shall be made after expiry of the period of three years from the date on which this act receives the assent of the president(2) every order made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament30act to have over-riding effect9 the provisions of this act and the rules made thereunder shall have effectnotwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or any instrument having effect by virtue of any such law10 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being in forceact not to be derogation of any other laws in force35power to make rules11 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rulesfor carrying out the purposes of this act40(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement  of  objects  and  reasonsours is predominantly an agrarian country and agriculture is the backbone of our economy as it immensely contributes to gross domestic product  (gdp) and generates largest number of employment opportunities the farmers sustain the country with food security and supply the largest share of raw material to industrial sector its export share is also considerable which brings precious foreign exchange in the country but, unfortunately, the farmer is the most exploited, heavily indebted and poverty stricken many a time, when the debt burden becomes unbearable and farmers, being unable to withstand this burden, end their lives by committing suicidethe national farmers commission has recently highlighted that nearly one lakh fifty thousand farmers have committed suicides in  the country since 1990, incidentally a large number of cases of suicides by farmers have taken place in those states where green revolution has been a success story namely punjab, maharashtra, madhya pradesh, kerala, tamil nadu, karnataka, andhra pradesh, chhattisgarh, and some other states in the state of maharashtra and in particular in the vidarbha region alone, the figure of farmers who have committed suicides touched one lakh thirty one thousand during 1993-2006 and the trend is still continuing in the state in fact, hardly any state has undertaken comprehensive enumeration of suicide by farmers the incidents of suicide of farmers in large number is a blot on our democracyacute poverty and indebtedness is another major factor for farmers for taking the extreme step of committing suicide according to national sample survey organisation, 486 per cent farmer households are reported to be indebted in the year 2005 the incidence of indebtedness is the highest in the state of andhra pradesh, where 82 per cent farmers are indebted followed by the states of tamil nadu, punjab, kerala and maharashtra in short, nearly 50 to 53 per cent farmers in many states are facing indebtednessin the recent past, two decisions of the central government regarding release of package of rupees 25,000 crore to families of farmers who had committed suicide debt waiver scheme of 70,000 crore rupees for farmers show that the seriousness and dimensions of the problem that  warrants a census survey of  farmers who have committed suicides simultaneously, various welfare measures need to be taken by the government to provide immediate relief to the affected farmers a national farmers natural calamity welfare fund is required to be established for removal of indebtedness and acute poverty among farmersthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectives financial  memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the constitution  of a national farmers natural calamity and welfare fund with initial corpus of fifty thousand crore rupees to be provided by the central government it further provides that the central government and the state governments shall contribute to the fund in such ratio as may be prescribed clause 5 provides for monitoring of trend of production, arrangement of transportation of surplus agricultural production and certain other measures for welfare of farmers clause 7 provides that the central government shall provide requisite funds to the state governments for carrying out the purposes of the act the bill, therefore, if enacted will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a recurring expenditure to the tune of rupees sixty thousand crore will be incurred per annuma non-recurring expenditure of rupees ten thousand crore is also likely to be incurred memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 11 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of detail onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character———— a billto provide for the protection of farmers from exploitation by moneylenders, middlemen,unscrupulous traders; increasing farm yield by improving farming practices by modern techniques and allied occupations, extending protective umbrella against natural calamities by taking up of welfare measures to prevent the distressed farmers from committing suicide and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto————(shri nishikant dubey, mp)