The concept of mandis — market for agricultural produce — is set to undergo a change. The Centre plans to open up those mandis for the private sector that only has Government entities so far.
This is one of the provisions of the model Agriculture Produce and livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017, which was circulated to States and Union Territories by the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday. This is the second version of the model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act framed by the Centre.
The new legislation will also have provision for promoting online or spot (e-national agriculture market) agriculture market platforms and ensure that all these measures are revenue neutral for States.
The act aims at a single national market in the country with one trader licence. A majority of the States have agreed to implement the Act which will help in fulfilling the Prime Minister’s dream of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said.
The Minister said new Act will provide entry of private players into Mandis. Under this Act, States/UTs would be considered as one entity. The model act has addressed not just marketing of field crops but multiple other commodities including fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, medicinal plants, livestock, poultry and fisheries, he said.
To double the farmers’ income, Singh said under e-NAM scheme, Rs 30 lakh is sanctioned to each market to build essential infrastructure. The fund was increased to Rs 75 lakh during Budget 2017-18. So far, 417 regulated markets from 13 states have been integrated into the scheme, which will be increased to 585 till March 2018. And 42.18 lakh farmers and 89,199 traders have been registered on E-NAM portal and the turnover is Rs 16, 163.1 crore from the trading of 63.17 lakh tonne produce, he said.
The main objective of the scheme is to give access to farmers about prices of various markets at one place so
that the farmers can sell their yield under a transparent system to a buyer who offers the best price.