Farmers can now sell outside APMC mkts

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s farmers will now be able to sell t heir produce outside t he Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets in the state. The state cabinet

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s farmers will now be able to sell t heir produce outside t he Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets in the state. The state cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal to give farmers of the state more options to sell their produce.

HT Image

A high-powered sub-committee, which includes eight ministers, was also constituted to formalise the modalities to implement the decision.

Although the decision is limited to fruits and vegetables, it will cause of a loss of around Rs5,000 crore to the Rs50,000 crore annual turnover of APMC markets, admitted state (agricultural) marketing minister Chandrakant Patil. The state will soon promulgate an ordinance for its implementation after finalising modalities, he said.

“With the historic move, the farmers will now be able to sell their produce to anyone who gives them a good price, which will ultimately help them earn more,” said Patil.

Currently, farmers are required to sell their produce in an auction at the APMC markets in their region, according to the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act, passed in 1963. Traders require a licence to operate within a market. The decision will also help farmers sell their produce directly to wholesale and retail traders — retail chains and food processing companies.

The state has 295 APMC markets that are running under the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board.

The objective of the APMC Act was to ensure farmers were not exploited by intermediaries, who would compel them to sell their produce at an extremely low price. But instead, traders exploited the farmers by making them pay a commission to buy their produce, forcing them to pay carrier charges, entry taxes, among other expenses. With this move, the monopoly of traders ends, said a senior official from the state marketing department.

The decision will also benefit consumers because the profit will be passed on to them as well, he said.

Significantly, the erstwhile Congress-NCP government, too, took the same decision in 2010, but it was never implemented. It decided to put the decision on hold following fierce opposition from the trader community. The APMC sector in the state has been dominated by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders.

Jaydatta Holkar, chairman of Lasalgaon APMC in Nashik, opposed the move, calling it anti-farmer. “We have already opposed the move by meeting chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently because it will break down a system in place for decades. Also, there will be no payment security for farmers if they sell their produce outside, while at the APMC their payment is 100% secured,” Holkar told HT.

The marketing minister clarified that traders who want to purchase produce outside the APMC will have to take licences from the government so that complaints related to nonpayment of dues can, if any, be addressed efficiently.

The fresh decision will also pave the way for 30 APMCs to be part of National Agriculture Market (NAM) project of the central government.

It is a pan-India electronic trading portal, which networks the existing APMC markets to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. The NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services.

This includes commodity arrivals and prices, buy and sell trade offers, provision to respond to trade offers, among other services.

Raju Shetti, MP and chief of Swab himani Shet kari Sanghatana, said the decision will bring relief to farmers because they will be freed from exploitation by traders. For instance, he said a farmer is forced to sell his onions at Rs1.60 a kg at APMC in Pune, while its retail price was not less than Rs 17 per kg. “My question is where is the rest of the money going? Why are farmers not getting proper remuneration for all the hard work,” he asked, demanding all agricultural produce should be allowed to be sold outside the APMC.