Agricultural Marketing and Prices

Economic Affairs

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Indian Economy - Understanding the basics of Indian economic system

Gujarat government amends APMC Act

Context: Recently, Gujarat’s state government has cleared the Gujarat Agricultural Produce Markets (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.
Key Amendments

The ordinance restricts the jurisdiction of APMCs to the physical boundaries of their respective marketing yards.
They can levy cess only on those transactions, happening within the boundary walls of their Marketing yard.
It provides traders with one unified single trading licence through which they can participate in trading activities anywhere in the state.
It will allow multiple traders to attract the farmers depending on the quality of their produce and offer competitive prices without the restriction of place and area jurisdiction.
The director of an APMC and the Gujarat State Agriculture marketing board will also start taking care of the grievance redressal which was solely managed by the APMC till now.

Significance of these changes:

The changes help develop these markets to efficiently function as marketing platform nearest to the farm gate.
They also ensure that the spirit of competition is encouraged and the principle of ‘farmer first’ is kept in mind.
The Farmers will not be bound to sell only to one particular APMC and can choose the one with the best deal in their favour.
Also, the act removes the conventional involvement of middlemen by allowing farmers to sell their crops in a free market. This is a progressive step towards a more robust farm economy.

About Agricultural Produce Market Committee

It is a statutory market committee constituted by a State Government in respect of trade in certain notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products.
It is set up under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act issued by that state government.

Its Objectives

Ensure transparency in pricing systems and transactions taking place in the market area.
Provide market-led extension services to farmers.
Ensure payment for agricultural produce sold by farmers on the same day.
Promote agricultural processing including activities for value addition in agricultural produce.
Setup and promote public private partnership in the management of agricultural markets, etc.