Privatisation enters agri market: For the first time, farmers will have option other than govt
MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that exporters, traders, food processors, etc, can open a private mandi and can buy the agriculture produce by visiting the farmer’s land or house.
Farmers in Madhya Pradesh can now sell their produce at more competitive prices, that too, without going to mandis. MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that exporters, traders, food processors, etc, can open a private mandi and can buy the agriculture produce by visiting the farmer’s land or house. The amendment in the mandi rules is aimed at giving freedom to the farmers to sell their produce at a better price, and on their own choice. The minister called the move revolutionary and highly progressive for farmers’ benefit. The private mandis will be operating apart from the normal mandis.
MP CM also mentioned that there will be only one license on which the private mandis can buy the agri produce from all over the state and the mandi fee will also be charged at only one place. Besides, the state has also decided to launch an e-trading facility that will allow the states’ farmers to trade with any other trading body across the country.
Meanwhile, the government has kept the mandi tax unchanged, therefore, it is expected to keep the burden intact. “The fall in demand due to lockdown and the nearly banned exports will create an oversupply of agri produce with the farmers. Besides, the travel restrictions have restricted the farmers from going to mandis. In this case, the traders can put a psychological pressure on them to sell their produce at bare minimum prices since the farmers neither have sufficient storage space nor have the window to bear the financial burden for long,” Ashok Vishandass, former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, told Financial Express Online. The move will not be effective in the short-term and instead, waiving off the mandi tax could have helped much more, he added.