Ahmedabad: From November, farmers here will be able to check stocks and buy or sell produce to those in Unjha at the click of a button, with Gujarat putting in place an electronic market platform for its Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), under the National Agriculture Market (NAM) initiative.
Initially, 26 of the 210 APMCs will be connected to the e-market platform. These include the APMCs in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Himmatnagar, Unjha, Surat, Dahod and Gondal.
“The total project cost is about Rs 21 crore. To secure financial assistance, we have given a proposal to the central government,” said Mona Khandhar, secretary of the agriculture and cooperation department, Gujarat.
The state government plans to develop two types of markets under the e-market platform — a real-time market and a virtual one. “The local real-time market will see trading of smaller lots by local traders on the e-platform wherein traders will have some time to study before bidding. The virtual market will allow traders with valid licences from anywhere to trade in larger lots. During trading, laboratory results can also be shared on the lots,” Khandhar said.
Currently, traders can participate only in a single APMC for physical trading, though they can participate in multiple markets with a single licence in the in e-market. Under the current e-market model, trading can also be carried out with other states, through a prior agreement.
Mohanbhai Kundariya, Union minister of state for agriculture, said, “Our aim is to put all APMCs under one platform so that farmers can get better prices for their products. The Union government will provide all kinds of financial support to develop an e-market platform.”
The Gujarat government aims to bring at least 100 APMCs under the e-market platform by the end of March 2016. For this, the central government has allotted Rs 200 crore.
The 26 APMCs to be connected to the e-market platform initially will have modern grading and packaging facilities. The state government also plans to set up a laboratory for quality checks.
“We have issued a tender to identify a commodity exchange to be our partner for the e-market platform. We are studying numbers of such markets,” Khandhar said.
The state government plans to conduct a seminar for farmers, traders and APMC officials to explain to them the concept of an e-market.
The NAM model has been adopted from Karnataka, which has had an e-market since the past couple of years. Gujarat, however, might be the first state to implement the project directly under NAM.
The Gujarat government is planning to set up 100 warehouses for agricultural produce, for which Rs 5 crore has already been allotted. “The state government has decided to give priority to e-market-linked APMCs to set up warehouses in the next year,” said J G Pandya, director of the Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board.
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