Seeking to allay fears on removing fruits and vegetables from the Agricultural Produce Markets Committee (APMC) Act, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil today said the move will not lead to abolition of these regulated markets.
"We have arranged for a workshop to clear up all misunderstandings in this regard (that the move will lead to eventual abolition of APMCs altogether) and will issue a notification after the APMCs meet with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar next week. The current move only is to delist of fruits and vegetables to help farmers and bring down prices," Patil said at a CII roadshow on Krishi Vasant 2014.
Earlier, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had directed party CMs to exempt fruits and vegetables from the purview of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act as retail inflation had hit a nine-month high in December at 10.52 per cent.
Patil informed that Maharashtra was planning to invest about Rs 10,000 crore for development of dry land farming.
"More than 80 per cent of the land in the state falls under dry land. We are now taking various measures to develop dry land farming and will invest around Rs 10,000 crore in this regard for the next five years," the minister added.
On 'Krishi Vasant', Patil said the event will help farmers to connect with consumers without long chain of intermediaries and establishing integrated value chains from production till marketing.
The five-day event, beginning February 9, aims at creating Public Private Partnership (PPP) for Integrated Agriculture Development (PPP-IAD) and providing a platform for exploiting new opportunities through agri-networking.
