The Centre has released a draft “National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing” that seeks to help farmers of all categories find a market of their choice to realise the best price for their produce. The policy aims to introduce agriculture reforms amid the ongoing protest by farmers to legalise MSP.

“To build a vibrant marketing ecosystem in the country wherein farmers of all categories find a market of their choice to realise best price for their produce, to be accomplished through improved efficiency, enhanced competition with multiple marketing channels and no monopsonic market structure, transparency, infrastructure and adoption of innovative digital technology and also agri value chain based marketing,” the draft policy said.

Issued by SK Singh, Deputy agriculture marketing adviser in Agriculture Ministry, the government has sought feedback from public by December 10.

Experts view the attempt as another round of reforms the Centre is now adopting after withdrawal of the farm reform laws in 2021. However, this time the Centre is moving to get the reforms initiated through States as it has asked them to draft their own policy framework in line with the national framework, experts said.

Asked if the current procurement system under minimum support prices (MSPs) will be conditional on adoption of the national policy framework, a senior official said currently there is no such plan and it will be decided on the basis of feedback. However, he made it clear that if States agree to the proposed “Empowered Agricultural Marketing Reform Committee of State Agricultural Marketing Ministers”, it will be on the lines of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST to ensure its implementation.

State Policy Framework

The draft framework, while suggesting the proposed empowered committee of State Agriculture Ministers to build up a consensus among the States to move towards unified national market for agriculture produce through single licensing/registration system and single fee, said the committee should be chaired by an Agriculture Minister of any State on rotational basis and its constitution should be through non-statutory gazette notification.

The draft policy said: “To align with the National Policy Framework, States may also consider framing and notify ‘State Policy Framework’ on agricultural marketing, which have not yet notified. States that have already notified such policy are required to tweak their policy framework to be by and large in consonance with the National Policy Framework to achieve the goal of making available best possible market and price to the farmers for their produce.”

The first suggestion in the draft national policy is about reforms in agricultural marketing laws and policies by the States. The Centre wants them to amend the agricultural marketing laws “to bring in efficiency and competition” through development of multiple channels for marketing with involvement of both public and private sectors.

The reforms in agricultural marketing laws have been carried out by many States, yet there is no true alternative developed for the existing agricultural market yard (mandi), a member of the panel which drafted the policy said. He also said that direct marketing happening under single licence in States needs to be kept out of mandi purview to bring in a complete change in the system.

More number of markets

The draft policy further proposed to integrate more number of markets — collection centres, aggregation points, private markets, deemed markets, GrAMs (Grameen Agricultural Markets), FPO premises, Common Agribusiness Centre and Market Place (CACMP) premises in addition to APMC markets (mandis) with eNAM portal.

“Once these multiple points are integrated with e-NAM, farmers will be able to sell their produce directly to anywhere in the country. But to make it happen, the government has to provide a national level licence to traders who are ready to use e-NAM and also a third-party insured guarantee on the quality of the produce,” said a Karnataka flour miller.

However, the government has to do some more study of the secondary market where the processors, who are the real users of the crops as raw material, prefer to buy through brokers and release the payment to the stockists, after delivery, he said.

There are about 700 farmer-consumer markets — Rythu Bazars in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Uzhavar Sandhais in Tamil Nadu, ApniMandi/Janata Bazar in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and Krushak Bazar in Odisha — in the country, wherein farmers directly sell their produce (mostly perishables) in retail to the consumers.

There are about 125 wholesale private markets in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. Besides, there are 22,931 grameen haats and 7,057 regulated markets (mandis) under APMC Acts (including 1,100 non-functional).

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