NSEL, Gujarat agri body to set up private market

Gujarat Agro Industries Coropration (GAIC), a company set up by the Gujarat government, is planning to set up a private market system in collaboration with National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).

GAIC has already applied for the state government's permission to enter the venture, while NSEL has also applied for the licence.

According to GAIC and NSEL, the negotiations are in the final stages and an announcement is likely to be made during the next week. "We are negotiating with NSEL to set up an e-procurement system at our existing 1,400 agri centres spread across the state. Under the joint venture, we will allow NSEL to set up their terminals at these agri centres. For this, we have already applied for the state government's permission under the newly amended Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC Act)," SC Srivastava, MD, GAIC, said.

He added that arrangement would enable farmers to get better prices for their produce and would allow them to have a national exposure. "Moreover, this will allow NSEL to have a deeper penetration in the state. We were looking for e-procurement software for this private market and NSEL, as a group company of MCX, has a well-developed software. This will also allow us to use our existing infrastructure in a better way," Srivastava said. At present, the agri centres are used for distribution of fertilisers, physical procurement of agricultural produces and holding farmers awareness programmes.

Anjani Sinha,managing director and CEO of NSEL, said negotiations with GAIC were in the final stages and they would come out with an announcement soon.

NSEL will be setting up its first spot exchange in Ahmedabad and has already applied for the licence from the state government.

Meanwhile, GAIC is setting up a cold storage chain management system in the state to help the agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture farmers to store their produces. "The decision was taken in January this year. The cold storage chain will be based on the system adopted by Thailand. If needed we will build new cold storages," Srivastva said.