The Hindu Business Line : Maharashtra to amend APMC Act

Farmers in the State will now be able to sell their produce in open markets and not remain shackled to the APMC (Agricultural Marketing Produce Committee) market yards.

A Bill to amend the Act would be introduced in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Assembly, the Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, told newspersons.

Currently, 16 States have agreed to amend the APMC Act. However, the task is not easy. In Karnataka there were bandhs in agriculture markets in the first week of June over the proposed amendments.

Under the current APMC Act, the farmer is forced to sell the produce in the APMC market yard, where middlemen dictate the prices and make handsome profits on the produce.

"Farmers and consumers should get advantage of the open and competitive marketplace. Therefore, we have decided to amend the APMC Act. Since the inception of the Act, APMC had created a monopoly that was not in the interest of the farmers. The Act will also facilitate contract farming in the State," said Mr Deshmukh.

The amended Maharashtra APMC Act would be in line with the model APMC Act drafted by the Union Government and various amendments would be referred to the Centre for its approval, he added.

The Chief Minster also said that the Act was being amended in order that the APMC market yards are strengthened, so that they can also face the future competitive market forces.

Moreover, the Act will also be amended in order to establish private, farm produce, direct, and special markets.

The establishment of private markets will not lead to the disbanding of APMC markets.

They will continue to exist but the amended Act will be more just to both the establishments.

Maharashtra will also have financial gains from the new agriculture and marketing policies of the Centre due to the amendments, the Chief Minister said.

The APMC in Maharashtra is divided into seven zones and four categories. All together there are 285 main markets and 593 sub-markets.

Today, APMC markets are working in monopolistic environment, not providing many choices to farmers, according to commodity analysts.

"Our farmers are in a seller's market while margins suggest they should be in a buyer's market. The need of the hour is to provide choices to farmers to sell their produce outside the monopolistic environment of APMC," said an agri-marketing expert.

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Maharashtra to amend APMC Act