Agri marketing is a State subject and while the Government has been engaging the States in a continuous dialogue on agri marketing reforms, the initiative in the sector lies with the States. The Government on its part, has been advocating multiple avenues of sale including direct marketing by bulk buyers, processors, exporters, etc. at the farm gate and promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations to leverage benefits of aggregation specially for market linkages. The Government also implements Price Support Scheme (PSS) and Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) in order to provide remunerative prices to the farmers and avoid distress sale. Assistance is also being provided for construction of scientific warehouses to enhance small and marginal farmers' retention capacity and to enable them to avail marketing credit by way of pledge financing and Negotiable Warehouse Receipts System (NWRs).
In the instance of Vidarbha Maharashtra has already reformed their marketing regulations. Under the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 1963, farmers are at liberty to sell their produce anywhere. In the State, there are 304 Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), out of which 103 are in Vidarbha region. Further as a result of having reformed their marketing laws, several alternative marketing channels for sale of farmers produce have come up. State has granted 77 licenses for direct marketing (sourcing the produce directly from the farmers) and 21 for private markets. In Vidarbha region, marketing infrastructure has been created in the APMCs under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and infrastructure is also being created under Maharashtra Agricultural Competiveness Project (MACP), Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project and Convergence of Agricultural Interventions in Maharashtra (CAIM) project. Further to avoid distress sale by farmers, Government has provided several facilities like- (i) Collateral management wherein Pledge loan is given to farmers at minimum interest rate by Banks and APMCs (ii) Marketing Federation is procuring produce at Minimum Support Price (MSP); (iii) 9713 storage structures with capacity of 58,12134 Metric Tonnes are available with various organizations like Cooperative societies, APMCs, Central & State Warehousing Corporation and private owners where farmers can store and avail credit from Banks by pledging Warehouse Receipts.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture Shri Mohanbhai Kundaria in the Rajya Sabha today.
GG: SB:CP: marketing (rajya) 12.12.2014
In the instance of Vidarbha Maharashtra has already reformed their marketing regulations. Under the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 1963, farmers are at liberty to sell their produce anywhere. In the State, there are 304 Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), out of which 103 are in Vidarbha region. Further as a result of having reformed their marketing laws, several alternative marketing channels for sale of farmers produce have come up. State has granted 77 licenses for direct marketing (sourcing the produce directly from the farmers) and 21 for private markets. In Vidarbha region, marketing infrastructure has been created in the APMCs under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and infrastructure is also being created under Maharashtra Agricultural Competiveness Project (MACP), Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project and Convergence of Agricultural Interventions in Maharashtra (CAIM) project. Further to avoid distress sale by farmers, Government has provided several facilities like- (i) Collateral management wherein Pledge loan is given to farmers at minimum interest rate by Banks and APMCs (ii) Marketing Federation is procuring produce at Minimum Support Price (MSP); (iii) 9713 storage structures with capacity of 58,12134 Metric Tonnes are available with various organizations like Cooperative societies, APMCs, Central & State Warehousing Corporation and private owners where farmers can store and avail credit from Banks by pledging Warehouse Receipts.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture Shri Mohanbhai Kundaria in the Rajya Sabha today.
GG: SB:CP: marketing (rajya) 12.12.2014
