The Uttarakhand cabinet has given its seal of approval to the new Uttarakhand Agriculture Produce (Development and Marketing) Act, which seeks to promote new reforms as well as private investments in the agriculture sector.
A decision to this effect was taken by a meeting of the state cabinet last evening which was presided over by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
Later speaking to Business Standard, state agriculture secretary Om Prakash said the new bill which is similar to the model Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act will be tabled in the state assembly in the next session to take the shape of an act.
Through the new act, Prakash said, the government would open doors for private investors like Reliance Industries and ITC which have recently entered the agriculture sector in a big way. “We have done our job, it is now for the private players to take benefit of the proposed act,” said Prakash.
The APMC Act contains provisions for setting up private mandis, enabling contract farming and constitution of regulatory authority to ensure a level playing field between the government controlled and private mandis. Private mandis would mean cutting out extra cess like the mandi cess and other charges, reducing final costs for consumers and buyers and allowing better gains for farmers.
The move came after a sub-committee of the state cabinet last year approved the draft. An expert committee has also toured different states like Andhra Pradesh to study the act and later gave its assent. The draft of the act was gathering dust since the past three years after the then Chief Minister B C Khanduri suggested certain changes and formed a sub-committee in this regard.
The new act is expected to pave the way for the legitimate establishment of private mandis. The bulk purchase licences will also allow the corporate houses to buy directly from the farmers in the run-up to the setting up of private mandis in the state.