The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), being the national standards body of India, has envisaged to develop National Agriculture Code (NAC) through its Food and Agriculture Department, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution B.L. Verma said in a reply in Rajya Sabha on March 11.

Significance of NAC

• Agriculture is vital to India’s economy, livelihood, and food security, accounting for approximately 20 per cent of the country’s GDP and employing around 50 per cent of the workforce. 

• With over 60 per cent of the population residing in rural areas, agriculture provides essential income and employment opportunities. 

• India’s agricultural sector produces a significant portion of the world’s staple crops, including rice, wheat, cotton, and spices, making it a crucial contributor to global food security. 

• Moreover, agriculture supports India’s industrial sector by providing raw materials for textiles, food processing, and other industries.

• The National Agriculture Code (NAC) is envisaged to incorporate emerging agricultural technologies, novel farming practices, and varying regional conditions across India. 

• In developing this code, areas which are lacking standardisation will be identified and standards will be developed for them.

• The NAC is envisaged to cover the entire agri value chain including crop selection, resource planning, land preparation, sowing/transplanting, irrigation and drainage, soil and plant health management, harvesting and threshing as well as post-harvest processing of agricultural produce, encompassing standardisation of horizontal aspects of sustainability, smart farming, traceability, energy usage in agriculture and documentation as applicable.

• In order to address the above-mentioned issues, a new technical committee, National Agriculture Code Sectional Committee, under BIS has been created to develop the NAC. 

• The technical committee consists of experts from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), relevant ICAR institutions, State Agriculture Universities, industry, civil society bodies, farmer association and other relevant stakeholders.

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