A national consultation to review the progress of adoption of reforms and other initiatives in the agri-marketing sector aimed at enhancing farmers’ income was held under the Chairmanship of Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog.
The meeting was also attended by Shri S.K. Pattanayak, Secretary DAC&FW, Dr. Ashok Dalwai, Additional Secretary, DAC&FW, senior officers from DAC&FW, Niti Aayog, Ministry of Environment, Forests & CC and Deptts. of Agricultural Marketing, Forest and Revenue from the State Govts /UTs.
DAC&FW has, in consultation with NITI Aayog, identified a set of 9 marketing reforms to be made in Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Acts of the States/UTs.
These include 3 mandatory reforms enabling integration to e-NAM viz provision for e-trading, unified trading license and a single point levy of market fee, as well as setting up markets in the private sector, direct marketing, etc all aimed at reducing the intermediaries between producer and buyer so as to ensure remunerative prices to the farmer.
The States were also advised to relax the felling and transit rules for trees being grown by farmers on their own lands so as to encourage agroforestry which has a huge potential for supplementing the income from agriculture.
A meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the States/UTs is being convened by Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister on 24th April 2017 highlighting the importance being given by Govt to post harvest management in which agricultural marketing has a crucial role.
The central govt. has called upon the States to modify their APMC Acts in order to have a single licence and single point of levy of market fee at the State level, and gradually move towards a single licence and single point of levy of market fee at the national level.
The idea is to remove disincentives for farmers and traders to trade across the country as they would not have to pay more money from their pockets.
