Shivraj Singh Chouhan announces major reforms to simplify farmers’ lives under PM Modi’s ‘Reform Express’

Licensing for sale and storage of household pesticides and registration process for new fertilisers to be simplified: Union Agriculture Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan

All 649 customs ports digitally integrated to facilitate import of agricultural commodities: Union Agriculture Minister

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on Monday reviewed a series of major reform measures aimed at simplifying processes for farmers, traders and agri-sector stakeholders, as Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, and Rural Development, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the ministry would accelerate changes under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s ‘Reform Express’ to make agricultural governance more transparent, technology-driven and efficient.

During the meeting, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Atish Chandra, briefed the Union Agriculture Minister in detail about various reforms being implemented by the ministry and upcoming reform measures.

Secretary Atish Chandra informed that the licensing process for the sale and storage of household pesticides has been significantly simplified. The application form for obtaining a licence has been reduced from three pages to a single page. In addition, the traditional system of providing physical leaflets with products has been discontinued and replaced with QR codes directly on product labels, eliminating additional paperwork.

This reform is expected to benefit more than 40 lakh retailers and grocery shopkeepers selling products such as mosquito repellent mats, coils, liquid vaporisers and cockroach sprays.

During the meeting, it was also informed about steps taken to simplify the registration process for new fertilisers under the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), 1985. Earlier, a two-tier system was in place for inclusion of new fertilisers, their specifications and methods of analysis, requiring approval from both the Technical Committee and the Central Fertilizer Committee. The dual approval mechanism has now been removed, and only the Central Fertilizer Committee has been authorised. So far, 19 applicants and manufacturers have benefited from the new system.

Providing details about reforms aimed at facilitating the import of agricultural commodities, officials informed the meeting that digital integration has been successfully completed across all 649 customs ports in the country. End-to-end integration has been established between the Plant Quarantine Management System (PQMS) and the Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange Gateway (ICEGATE).
Agricultural commodity importers will now need to submit only a single application through ICEGATE, following which the Import Release Order (IRO) will be issued directly to the importer’s login.

It was also informed during the meeting that the import-export process for seeds and planting materials has been simplified. The government has completely abolished the EXIM Committee and also removed the mandatory requirement of obtaining “Prior Recommendation”, making the import-export process for seeds and planting materials faster and more convenient.

The officials also reviewed the ‘Bharat-VISTAAR – AI in Agriculture’ platform, which is aimed at making farmers’ lives easier. The platform is a new central AI-based system designed to provide important agriculture-related information on a single platform. Since the launch of its first phase on February 17, 2026, the platform has received more than 44 lakh queries.

Officials informed the meeting that earlier farmers had to visit more than 15 different platforms to access information, whereas now they can obtain all required information at one place at any time of the day or night.

Under another reform initiative aimed at improving ease of doing business in the agriculture sector, the government is considering streamlining the approval process for new fertilisers under the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), 1985.

Under the proposed reform, inorganic fertilisers meeting established quality and safety standards may be exempted from mandatory field trials. This is expected to significantly speed up the introduction of new fertiliser technologies in the market. Officials said in-principle agreement has already been reached on the proposal, and after detailed consultations with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the agriculture industry and state governments, along with review of relevant documents, the reform will be finalised for implementation.

At the end of the meeting, Union Agriculture Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed officials to further intensify the reform process to promote transparency, technological efficiency and good governance in the agriculture sector under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He said the objective of these reforms is to make procedures simpler, faster and more effective for farmers, traders, entrepreneurs and all stakeholders associated with the agriculture sector.