The government today approved the setting up of an online national agriculture market that will provide more options to farmers for selling their produce.
A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The proposal on the creation of a National Agriculture Market has been approved by the Cabinet,” sources said.
Currently, farmers are restricted to selling their produce at mandis or market committees that charge various taxes on producers. Sources said an online platform would be set up wherein farmers will be able to sell and buy fruits, vegetables and other produce from across the country.
An agency would be set up to oversee online trading and to ensure that transactions take place smoothly, they said.
It will also focus on creating godowns and facilitating transportation of the farm produce after the online trade, sources added.
The move is expected to give choice to farmers to sell the farm produce both in physical mandis or online platform.
The freer access to sell via online trade is likely to boost their incomes and improve availability, moderating price rise.
Onion stock limit
To curb the rise in onion prices, government today extended by one year the ban on holding of its stock beyond the prescribed limit.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The validity of the order that empowers States to impose stock limits on traders for holding onion and ban hoarding beyond the set limit, expires tomorrow –July 2.
“The CCEA today approved the stock holding limit order on onion by another year. This will enable State governments take effective de-hoarding measures under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955,” according to sources.
The order has been extended as onion prices in both wholesale and retail markets have started increasing due to sluggish supply of good quality onion as the crop is getting damaged in storage in major growing States.
High storage losses are likely to reduce availability of onions in the market and put pressure on prices till the arrival of new kharif crop from mid-September.
Minimum export price
To prevent spike in onion prices in the coming days due to supply shortage, the government has already increased the minimum export price of the commodity to $425 a tonne and is also planning to import some quantities of onions to boost domestic availability.
Last year, both onions and potatoes were brought under the purview of the ECA and State governments got powers to impose upper limit for holding the stock of these two items by traders and ban hoarding beyond the set ceiling.
Other commodities that come under the ambit of stock holding limits order are pulses, edible oils, oilseeds, rice and paddy.
India’s onion production is estimated to have declined to 189.23 lakh tonnes in the 2014-15 crop year (July-June), against 194 lt in the previous year, according to government data.