THE "NEW AGRICULTURE MARKET CHANGES MAY CAUSE ZERO AVIABILITY OF GRIANS FORM APMC MARKETS"

Picture  source; mmnewstv.com

In the year 2003 GOI   had taken the decision to open up the agriculture markets for the private sector to purchase the wheat directly from the farmers.  As a result of which MNC’s like Kargill, Australian Wheat board ,  Louis Dreyfus   etc.  started aggressive purchase of wheat directly  from the Indian farmers  as there  Global mission     and exported the wheat grains as per their choice and the result of which millions of Indians people face the wheat crisis as there was no  availability of wheat in the market for a common Indians and this decision has created a situation just like Bengal famine (1943)  again in the country  .

I had remembered during that period  there was  no wheat supply under the public distribution system and in the year 2004 there was no option prevailed   except the  import the wheat   to feed the country  Hence to meet the domestic requirement in  the year  2005 -2006 Indian government imported the 80 lakh tones of wheat  on  just double rates in comparison to the rates which were  given to the  famers for their wheat produce   this situation has created lot of anger and disharmony  in the country and  After the identification of the mistake which was done in the past.    The GOI  has withdrawn earlier imposed decision very silently and smartly and represented it as a step of Agriculture market improvisation. 

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is working on creating a common agricultural market with a new slogan

 “ one country One market “ and it seems that again GOI  is going to impose the same mistake again i.e. providing the more option of the markets to the agricultural produce which means the government wants to establish a private market and this step will defiantly kill the 7,700 APMC markets of the country.

The need to bring the new necessary changes are elaborated by the GOI, that because of  APMC Act provision and local trade involvement the earning of the farmers are restricted. but the information which are hiding by the GOI  – that APMC market makes payment on the basis of minimum support price (MSP) and this is only confirmed income of the farmers if there will no check  to control the product price by APMC as per there old norms than there will be chance that under these prevailing circumstances the prices of agriculture produce will get hugely collapsed  and farmer will be bound to  sell their produce at any rate imposed by the private purchaser  .

Punjab has a good network of APMC markets and in Punjab farmer received their produced rate in accordance to the minimum support price (MSP) But if we take the example of Bihar where there is no APMC market since 2007 farmer gets the price for their wheat produce 1100/= or 1000/= rupees per quintal.

 E-NAM ( Electronic – National agriculture markets )  platform has objective to resolve problems  about transparent sale transactions and price discovery till now NAM has reached in 417 APMC market of 13 sates but no one has to describe that e- NAM story is just like  Failure of e- chaupal system in the country. If you had remembered at that time it was proclaimed that by the use of information technology e – chaupal  will bring the massive changes in the agriculture now no one takes the name of e – chaupals which were launched in the year 2000 with great advisement. I had remember  that it was described that e – chaupal system  will clean the agriculture markets from the middle men’s and there was a flood of articles on this topic in every news paper, every magazine and in news talk shows but no one point out the  hidden fact  that  both the company ITC – IBD was also a middle man in the process  and it was assessed later these companies has given rates to the farmers as per their own discretion and just similar to the local mandi’s and in 2005 these e – chopals converted in to  village network of FMCG’s   products and name has given the chaupal – Sagar.

So , E- Chaupal is a lesson for us for our recent past mistakes and we can’t ignore this lesson. The overall conclusion is that only traditional operated APMC market is only beneficial for the shake of agriculture markets and this is the real fact that green revolution in the country during the 70’s is just because of the APMCs network in the country.

This is very true that since last several decades APMC markets are indulged in corruptions and the large geographical area of India and its relatively weak infrastructure are also among the most important constraints on creating a proper distribution system for farm produce, which can only be corrected by proper functioning APMCs.
A reform of the APMC Act will require a huge political will to break these agricultural cartels, in addition to harmonizing the implementation of the Act in the different states that create market distortions.
As the APMCs were created to protect the interest of farmers it would be in the fitness of things to secure farmers the choice to go to the APMC or not.
As easy as it may seem, eliminating the APMC or delisting produce from the APMC cannot provide long-term solutions to the problems of price inflation and farmer suicides.
Without a government regulatory board to protect the interests of small farmers, producers and traders will only be a shift from mandi operators to large-scale distributors and retailers who will not be under the direct control of the government.

ü We have to enhance the present network of APMC markets present 7,700 APMC markets to 42,000 APMC markets

ü There should be one APMC market at least 5 km peripheries   and every Mandi should be contacted  by electronic trading platform and purchased of agriculture produce should not be less than the declared prices

ü There is a need to make a link road from every village to APMC market

ü Whatsoever produce farmer bring to market then it should be purchased at government rates and theory of Model rates under the NAM platform should be immediately abolished 

ü As we know that government declare the minimum support price for 24 crops but in APMC markets only wheat and rice purchasing are happening on MSP Hence for every crop there should be MSP declare by the government and a law should be imposed that purchase  of any produce below-declared rate should be illegal

ü  To motivate the farmers there should be a grading system in the APMC markets.A extra bonus price should  be awarded to farmers for better-graded produce as I was earlier followed in Punjab Rs 2/- per kg

ü Like a spot market if businessmen wants to purchase the product for future business and store the produce then there should be no restrictions on storage the produce