Maha govt to remove restrictions on sales by farmers in retail markets

Pune, June 15: Maharashtra will soon make it easy for farmers to sell perishable commodities such as fruits and vegetables to whosoever they want, with the government set to remove restrictions that force them to sell only to wholesale traders.

An ordinance will be introduced in the July session of the Assembly and thereon compulsions shall be removed for the farmers to sell only to Agriculture Produce Market Committees, Chandrakant Patil, state minister for cooperation, said.

The minister also hastened to add that this does not mean that APMCs will cease to exist. They will exist alongside and farmers will have the option of selling their produce to whosoever they want, he said. The refor m cannot be introduced unless the APMC Act is amended, he added.

“At present, the 350-odd APMCs in the state do a business of some R50,000 crore and if these reforms kick in, at most the APMCs may lose business worth R10,000 crore. Therefore the fear that APMCs may shut down or traders will lose business is not correct. We are giving farmers an additional option. If they find it difficult to directly sell to the consumer, they are free to approach the APMCs,” he said. Patil was speaking on the sidelines of a meet held by Krushak Farm on sustainable far ming held in Pune.

The government considered this move after the amendment of the APMC Act in Delhi where farmers can still approach the mandis to sell their produce, the minister pointed out.

The reform has also been proposed to establish a direct interfacebetweenfarmersand consumers that would help both. Presenting the Union Budget,financeministerArun Jaitley specifically mentioned thatstateswouldqualifyforthe integration of their APMC marketsintotheNationalAgriculture Market only if they implement these reforms.