The department of agriculture marketing, government of Karnataka proposes to extend electronic tendering system at 15 more agriculture produce marketing committee (APMC) yards during the current financial year. Already electronic tendering system has been installed at 20 APMCs in the state at a cost of Rs 8 crore.
The new system has been functioning well and it has successfully proved that anomalies present in the earlier traditional tendering system can be removed. In the traditional system of tendering process, farmers had to wait for several hours for cash settlement after the finalisation of their tenders.
The installation of electronic tendering system has enabled conduct of auctions in a transparent manner, Shivaraj Thangadagi, minister for agriculture marketing and sugar, said.
Talking to reporters, here today, he said during the current year, the government will spend Rs 6 crore to install electronic tendering system at 15 more APMCs and extend it to all other APMCs in phases. Karnataka has 146 APMCs.
The minister said that in the next couple of months, the department of agriculture marketing will finalise bidders for setting up wholesale markets for onion, potato and other vegetables.
The government plans to set up two wholesale markets at Dasanapura under Yashwantpur APMC through a public private partnership model at an investment of Rs 102 crore. The department has already acquired 67 acres for this purpose. For marketing of other vegetables, the department plans to set up modern market at Byatarayanapura on Bellary road. For this purpose 30 acres land has been identified, he said adding that the government has allocated Rs 8.70 crore to APMCs in the state for creation of infrastructure in other APMCs.