Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the national agriculture market (NAM) on April 14.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the national agriculture market (NAM) on April 14. It proposes to integrate 585 regulated wholesale market or agriculture produce market committees (APMCs) under one electronic platform within a couple of years. The NAM will allow farmers to sell their produce to highest bidders.
The NAM will initially aim at integrating 21 mandis in eight states – Gujarat (3), Telangana (5), Rajasthan (1), Madhya Pradesh (1), Uttar Pradesh (5), Haryana (2), Jharkhand (2) and Himachal Pradesh (2). Sources said chana, castor seed, paddy, wheat, maize, onion, mustard and tamarind will be traded in these mandis.
Fruits and vegetables, which often witness price fluctuations, are yet to be included in the NAM platform. Besides, the country’s two biggest mandis — Azadpur (Delhi) and Vasi (Mumbai) — have not yet agreed to come on board.
Sources told FE that 14 states which have amended their respective APMC Acts for making provision for e-trading are — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
However, many of these states are yet to make changes for allowing sales of fruits and vegetables through the e-trading platform.
“Farmers face price volatility in selling their fruits and vegetables as they are perishable while in case of other commodities such as grains and pulses, there are several traders involved in procurement,” an official said.
Seventeen states and Union Territories have included the provision of single point levy of market fee in their APMC Acts and 15 other states have made provision of single unified licence to validate trading across the entire state.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech announced setting up of the Unified Agriculture Marketing Scheme that envisages a common e-market platform that will be deployed in 585 regulated wholesale markets.
“Amendments to the APMC Acts of states are pre-requisite to join this e-platform. Twelve states have already amended their APMC Acts and are ready to come on board. More states are expected to join this platform in the coming year,” Jaitley had said.
As per the government’s plan, following the formal launch of NAM, 200 mandis would be integrated by September. Besides, 200 more markets would be integrated to NAM by March 2017 and the remaining 185 by March 2018. The Centre has allocated Rs 200 crore for implementation of the NAM.
National kharif meet starts today Following two consecutive drought years ( 2014 and 2015), the agriculture ministry has called a two-day national conference stating Monday to chalk out strategy for sowing of kharif crops such as paddy, pulses and oilseeds.
