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To fast-track integration of States into the e-National Agriculture Market platform, the Centre has called a meeting of officials of all States and Union Territories on Friday to review the steps taken by them to bring about the required amendments in the APMC Act.
In addition to the ten states that have reformed their agricultural produce market committee Acts and already have several mandis connected to e-NAM, five States — Maharashtra, Assam, Mizoram, Orissa and Sikkim — have newly come on board, an Agriculture Ministry official told BusinessLine .
“In the meeting on Friday, we will evaluate the steps taken by the remaining States so far to bring their legislations in alignment with the model APMC Act. The idea is to encourage them to bring about the required changes to expedite the creation of a unified national agriculture market,” the official said.
e-NAM, or the National Agriculture Market, is a pan-India electronic portal for sale and purchase of agricultural produce launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April this year. It was initially launched in 22 mandis in eight States.
The idea behind the online market is to reduce transaction costs, help farmers identify the best buyers, and maintain quality standards with the provision of quality testing.
Three key reforms neededFor integration with the e-platform, States/UTs need to bring about three main reforms. These include implementing a single licence to be valid across the state, a single point levy of market fee and provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery.
“The idea is to first have States and UTs implement a single licence and single point of levy of market fees and then gradually move towards a single licence and single point of levy of market fees at the national levy. It will remove disincentives for farmers and traders to trade across the country as they will not have to shell out more money from their pockets,” the official said.
Giving an update on the implementation of the scheme, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh recently said that it had been implemented in 250 markets across ten States. They are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chattishgarh, UP, Jharkhand and Haryana.
The Minister is optimistic that the goal of connecting all 585 regulated mandis by the end of 2017 instead of March 2018 will be achieved.
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