APMC Act: Experts feel changes will augur well for state

In 2001-02,Maharashtra had 4.02 lakh hectares of land under vegetables,which was 8.02 per cent of India’s total land under vegetable cultivation. Its total vegetable production was 51.28 lakh metric tonnes (MT) — 7.26 per cent of the total vegetables produced in the country.

However,the 2012-13 figures released by the National Horticulture Board paint a grim picture. The state’s share of land under vegetable cultivation has now fallen to 5.25 per cent (4.77 lakh hectare). The production figures have also substantially dipped. It now contributes only 5.22 per cent (81.79 lakh MT) to the country’s total vegetable production.

The fruit production figures are not encouraging

either.

In 2001-02,with 5.82 lakh hectares,Maharashtra alone contributed to 14.51 per cent of the country’s total land under fruit cultivation and almost 20.55 per cent of the total fruit production in the country with an output of 88.4 lakh MT.

A decade later,Maharashtra’s contribution to the total fruit production is 12.59 per cent (97.85 lakh MT) even though land under cultivation has increased to 15.48 lakh hectares,which is 22.52 per cent of the total land under fruit cultivation in the country.

“Removal of vegetable and fruit from the purview of the APMC Act will be a substantial help to farmers. The last decade has been bad for vegetable and fruit farmers with the state’s erratic weather affecting production. Secondly,vegetable and fruit farming have generally been done by small-scale farmers who were not in a position to survive in the exploitative market and the cartels that were created in the APMCs,” said Sadabhau Khot,a senior leader of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana,an organisation fighting for farmers’ rights.

There are a total of 295 APMCs in Maharashtra. Some,like the Vashi APMC in Navi Mumbai,provide nearly 1,800 tonnes of vegetables to the 2.02 crore residents of Mumbai,Thane and Navi Mumbai,which means each individual gets 90 grams of vegetables.

Experts claimed that due to the APMC Act,which mandates that farmers should sell their produce only through an APMC,prices were inflated.

Vegetables and fruits are sold in the market for anything between 80 and 200 per cent of the price that a farmer sells his produce to a trader in the APMC.

Experts also pointed out that the state had worked towards expanding production but not worked on creating markets for the produce.

“Only amending the Act will not help. The state needs to create markets for the goods produced. The situation of agriculture processing units in the country is not as it should be. There still needs to be lot of policy decisions at this level before both farmers and end users feel happy with the system,” said Milind Murugkar,a food and agricultural policy expert.