So that you can give more freedom to farmers to distribute their produce, the agriculture ministry has unveiled The State/UT Agricultural Produce and Livestocks Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Act, 2017 that's defined each state/UT as being a single unified market area. The draft law is proposed to overhaul the earlier laws.

Already 26 states and Union Territories, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, have fully or partly modified their APMC laws. Other than Bihar, other states/UTs have decided to adopt the model Act.

Salient Highlights

The model act proposes to curb the role of APMC mandis. The APMC mandis can enforce regulation only on their market yard in so doing encouraging private sector players to set up mandis. Traders could transact in all of the markets within a situation by paying one fee.

The model law on agricultural marketing would introduce features like single market within a situation, private wholesale markets, direct sale by farmers to bulk buyers, and promotion of electronic trading etc.

As agricultural marketing is a situation subject is governed by their respective Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts, the states have the freedom to innovate portions or the total model act. Their state governments depending on the draft law should appoint an impartial entity director of agricultural marketing who would be a sole authority to grant the licence in the establishment of an exciting new market yard in the state concerned.

This new Act proposes that can put a cap on mandi taxes at 1% for foodgrain and 2% for fruits and vegetables including commission agent's levy at 2% for the total transaction cost.

Need

Because of the monopoly of APMCs, farmers should not have a�choice to distribute their farm produce to multiple buyers. The model act brings several marketing channels to distribute agricultural produce. The model act aims to liberalize trade in farm produce and aid better price realization for farmers.

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