Briefing about the initiative of the Central Government to the Members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, said that the Government is actively working to usher in reforms of the Agri marketing system in the interests of farmers and consumers both.
In order to ensure free flow of Agricultural produce from one market area to another, save producers from multiple levies of mandi charges and to ensure agro commodities for consumer at reasonable prices, the Government has drawn a time bound programme for developing National Agriculture Market, added Singh.
The members of the parliament who attended the meeting were Chintaman Navsha Wanaga, Manshankar Ninama, Rodmal Nagar, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Shobha Karandlaje, Tapas Mandal, K.Rahman Khan and K.R.Arjunan.
The National e-platform developed for this proposes will cover 250 Agri mandis by September 2016 and by March 2018 total 585 mandis will have the system to ensure the farmers’ access of for their produce across the markets. The center has urged the state Governments to introduce e-market platform within the state to unify mandis of the state so that farmers are free to sell in any of the mandi. Department of Agriculture will provide free software and help in its customization for the states, said the Minister.
Shri Singh said that the Central Government has embarked on the idea of creating a unified market through an online platform at national level ultimately. National Agriculture Market (NAM) would offer a common market places by providing real time prices on a national level to the participants of the Agri Produce eco- systems.
He said that center has kept Rs 175 crore to provide assistance of about Rs 30 lakh per mandi for the software and it has already approved financial assistance for Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.