CMs' high-powered panel on farm for linking central grants with reforms

It would also find ways in which investment credit in the agriculture sector could be made cheaper to encourage private sector investments

To push growth in the farm sector, a high-powered panel of chief ministers on Thursday proposed the Centre to link grants and allocations made by the Finance Commission to states with reforms in the sector. It also asked the government to work towards re-orienting subsidies in a targeted manner from the crop sector to the non-crop sector and redesign the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNaM). 

The panel also decided to look into whether the food sector could be taken off the ambit of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, or how to avoid instances when the Act can be triggered. 

It would also