After declaring a new APMC Act as well as an agriculture policy this year, the Uttarakhand government is now gearing up to break the stranglehold of middlemen in the agriculture and horticulture businesses in order to boost production.
“Our main focus now will be to eliminate intermediaries completely from the agriculture sector so that our farmers get better prices,” said agriculture secretary Om Prakash.
For this purpose, the government would use the success of the basmati rice model where farmers are getting as high as Rs 37-38 kg from companies like Kohinoor which are procuring paddy directly from them. “We have removed most of the intermediaries from the basmati rice sector by organising a series of farmers’ meets,” said Prakash.
According to Binita Shah, senior programme manager of the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board, farmers last year got Rs 37 per kg as gate-price for their paddy. The companies normally sell basmati rice ranging between Rs 80-200 a kg in the retail market, she said.
Uttarakhand is currently producing 330,000 quintals of basmati rice from 11,000 hectares of area, mainly in four districts of Udhamsingh Nagar, Dehradun, Haridwar and parts of Nainital.
When the hill state was formed in 2000, basmati rice was produced only in an area of only 1,500 hectares. “These statistics clearly show that farmers are showing renewed interest in basmati rice and are ready to increase basmati area. This is because they are getting better price,” said Prakash.
Poor logistics like shortage of cold storages, godowns and transport are also being seen as major stumbling blocks in the agri and horticulture businesses. “In our state, the wastage is nearly 70 per cent. We will definitely improve our logistics to reduce wastage,” said horticulture minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
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The government has also found contract farming as the best way to increase agriculture production. “Contract farming”, said Prakash, “is one of the key features of the new agriculture policy. We would like to bring top companies like Reliance and Walmart into contract farming business in the hill state.”
In the new agri policy, the government has focused on chakbandi or land consolidation scheme as most of the farm holdings in the hill state are fragmented. “Chakbandi is very important which is voluntarily done by farmers. If we are able to consolidate our land holdings, we will be able to infuse private capital in the agri-business,” Prakash added.