The uncertainty continues to dog the proposed Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act in Uttarakhand despite its strong provisions to end the role of middlemen.
“It is still not clear when the APMC Act will be enacted in our state,” a top official told Business Standard.
This is despite the fact that a sub-committee of the state cabinet has already approved the draft bill on the APMC Act. Besides, a four-member expert team of agriculturists that toured some of the states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to study the impact of the APMC Act there, has also given its approval.
The APMC draft bill is gathering dust during the past three years after the then Chief Minister B C Khanduri suggested certain changes including study of such act in other states.
Senior officials admitted that the government was a bit hesitant to pass the Act due to certain provisions which would finally end the role of middlemen, who do not provide fair market prices to farmers. For example, tumbari, a special potato variety in Uttarakhand, is sold in the market for Rs 25-30 a kg. But farmers hardly get Rs 5-8.
The sources said the government’s reluctance on APMC Act has also blocked top-notch companies like Reliance, ITC and Mother Dairy from entering into agriculture sector directly in the state. These companies which were initially ready to invest nearly Rs 200 crore every year in the state, have now backed out, the official said.
The APMC 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 farmers in the run-up to the setting up of private mandis in the state.
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 such as the mandi cess and other charges, reducing final costs for consumers and buyers and allowing better gains for farmers, top officials here said.
In effect, the new APMC Act would mean direct purchase of commodities at market-defined prices by trading and corporate houses from farmers, either through individual purchase contracts or from farmer/consumer markets.
