Mumbai (The Hindu): Amendments to the APMC Act will weaken market committees, leaving the path clear for multinationals to step in and establish a monopoly, say activists

As the debate grows within the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine in the State over amendments to the Maharashtra Agriculture Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, agri-activists say any change that will lessen the pivotal role played by the State’s 305 APMCs will impact farmers, traders and household budgets.

In force since 1963, the APMC Act was brought in to regulate the marketing of agricultural produce, and provides for the establishment of market committees which develop market yards as an interface between agriculturists and buyers.

Though market committees have been in place since the pre-Independence era, the current ruling dispensation’s business-friendly approach based on policies that make doing business easy has turned the spotlight on the APMCs.

This, however, has triggered one more BJP-Sena scrap,

In the case of APMCs, Shiv Sena MLA and State Minister for Industries Subhash Desai is all for amending the APMC Act to ensure safe passage for the proposed Retail Trade Policy, but State Cooperation Minister Chandrakant Patil, a BJP legislator, says the government is not ready to bring in the reforms.

Patil said his key concern is that the policy allows retailers to bypass APMCs and buy directly from farmers.

Good or bad?

For years, APMCs have often been accused of monopolising the purchase of farm products through a cartel of traders and politicians. “There should be no restrictions on farmers in selling their products. The market should be open. It will create more competition and farmers will be paid satisfactorily,” says Giridhar Patil, an agro-market activist from Nasik. He feels that cutting the mediator (APMC) out will ensure that customers get the produce at cheaper rates.

According to Mr Patil, once the farmer sells his produce to traders, the trader-politician-bureaucrat cartel acts to raise the retail prices to reap benefits. “The whole country suffers in such cases,” he adds.

Licence to market

The attempt to make changes to the Act had started in the last decade. In 2006, the APMC Act was amended to allow buyers direct access to farmers. Unlike APMCs, where traders need to maintain a separate buying licence for each committee, this amendment allowed buyers to use one marketing licence issued by the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) at all committees. However, clauses such as requirement of warehouses and paying rates above Minimum Support Price (MSP) prevented the entry of private firms.

It is this clause that is set to change. “The government now wants to surrender completely to corporates,” says Rajan Kshirsagar, vice-president, Maharashtra Kisan Sabha. “APMCs were formed with the aim to protect farmers from traders, and ensure rates above the MSP. While there are problems in the present model, breaking it down completely won’t help; instead, it will have disastrous results,” he adds.

By claiming to break the trader-politician cartel, says Mr Kshirsagar, the government is promoting a monopoly by corporates.

“Do you want us to believe that these corporate entities will ensure cheaper products in the retail market for customers?” he demands to know, adding that in the name of farmers, the government is promoting the interests of MNCs.

Political power game

In its present form, the dependence of farmers on market committees to sell their produce has given tremendous political power to them.

“In rural economy and politics, the one who controls these committees plays a major role,” said Mr Patil. The APMCs have traditionally been considered as strongholds of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Congress, into which the BJP and Sena are eager to make inroads.

The results of the recently-concluded elections to the Tasgaon market committee, which saw a win by the panel led by late NCP leader RR Patil’s wife Suman, sparked violence in Sangli district.

Suman, now an MLA, had raised this issue of violence in the recently-concluded winter session of the State Assembly.

“They want to destroy it completely. What about thousands of workers dependent on it?” asks NCP MLA Shashikant Shinde.

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