APMC act 2.0 will come to existence by 2017
Government will be ready with second version of model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) act by next year, aiming to increase farmers' income by measures like taking contract farming out of the law. NITI Aayog and Agriculture Ministry are working on the new model law, which can be adopted by the states. At present, few states like Punjab have come out with separate contract farming law, reports PTI.
The new APMC act will also have provision for promoting online or spot (e-national agriculture market) agriculture market platforms and ensure that all these measures are revenue neutral for states. If taken out of the purview of the APMC Act, there would be no mandi tax on contract farming. Also, the new law would provide farmers an alternative to sell fruit and vegetables directly to retailers. Earlier, there was a demand to delist fruit and vegetables from APMC Act to deal with inflation.
"The draft model APMC Act will be ready in next three months then we will put it in public domain for feedback from all stakeholders, including farmers and states. Once finalised it will go to Union Cabinet for approval," Agriculture Additional Secretary Ashok Dalwai told reporters after NITI Aayog's meeting with states on farm reform agenda.
The move assumes significance in view of NDA government's ambiguous target of doubling farmer’s income by March, 2022. NITI Aayog had pitched for reforms in the agriculture sector in the meeting of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in July this year. During the meeting, Aayog Member (Agriculture) Ramesh Chand made a case for multipronged reforms in the agriculture sector to deal with farm suicides, low income and slow growth rate of the sector. He had said, "It is almost impossible to double farmer income if we do not address issue of agriculture marketing, give him freedom to diversify and the issue of rising tenancy in agriculture."
Briefing the reporters after national consultations with states, Chand said, "Another model APMC act will be drafted based on the suggestion of the states. Today states have raised concerns about losing revenue due to implementation of APMC act." He cited the example of Punjab which stated that the state earns Rs 2,000 crore from mandis in a year. Allowing private mandis or market and other trading mechanism may hit their revenues. Asked why anybody would go to private agriculture mandi or market, Chand said, "Today, the mandi in Delhi charges 6 per cent market fee. If a private mandi offers 3 per cent or lower rate, the producers will go that mandi. This will create competition."