Welcome reforms

Several states have opened up agri-marketing

Steps taken by some states to open up agricultural marketing to the private sector are indications of a new need-based trend that is likely to endure. By issuing an Ordinance to allow establishing private agricultural markets, Madhya Pradesh has become the second state, after Punjab, to break the state monopoly over revenue-generating agricultural markets. Punjab has re-framed the rules under its Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) Act to clear the way for privately-owned farm markets and direct out-of-mandi, transactions between growers, consumers, and other end-users of agri-products. Many other states have also taken some small, yet path-breaking, measures to reform