Weekly space for farmers’ market: State to intervene

I will speak to the chief minister about issuing a circular to all municipal corporations and planning authorities through UDD. We have already started such markets in Pune, Nagpur and Mira-bhayander and are aiming to start it in several other cities in the state. CHANDRAKANT PATIL, minister of state for marketing

MUMBAI: In order to start weekly farmer-producer markets in congested Mumbai, minister of marketing Chandrakant Patil minister of marketing has decided to seek chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s intervention.

Reason: To issue a circular asking municipal corporations or planning authorities concerned to allot regular space to weekly-markets in their jurisdiction.

Patil said he will discuss the issue with Fadnavis and ask the urban development department (UDD) to issue a circular to all municipal corporations and planning authorities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to provide space for market, which will initiate direct farmer-to-consumer marketing of vegetable and fruits.

“I will speak to the chief minister about issuing a circular to all municipal corporations and planning authorities through UDD. We have already started such markets in Pune, Nagpur and Mira-bhayander and are aiming to start it in several other cities in the state,” Patil said.

Both consumer and farmer groups have for long been demanding such markets to cut down on middle-man profiteering, which also leads to massive inflation in vegetable and fruit prices by the time it reaches the consumer.

The introduction of farmer-producer markets is an attempt to cut down the long supply chain involving traders, commission agent, sub-dealers, wholesalers and retailers and also to reduce profiteering rampant at every level.

For the urban consumers this could mean yet another option to purchase their daily supply of vegetable and fruits at more affordable rates.

In the meantime, farmer producer groups and compa nies that are selling produce in such markets complained that though they are keen on direct marketing in urban areas the lack of space and govern ment support is holding them back.

“It took us more than six months just to find a space for our first market in Mira Bhayander. Finally, we got it through a private builder to whom we are paying rent. If the civic body gives us with space once a week, we will be able to sell the produce at more affordable price to consumers,” Vikas Bhalerao, a Junnar-based farmer and organiser of the weekly market told Hindustan Times.