Maharashtra: New Farm Laws Helped Farmers Enhance Profit By Selling Outside APMCs, SC Stay Hampering Sales

The new farm reform laws brought in by the Modi government is helping Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) in Maharashtra in creating an alternative marketing channel for farmers, reports BusinessLine.

Farmers are also receiving the market rates on their WhatsApp groups or via SMSes which help them to decide whether they want to sell their produce in the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis or to the FPC procurement centres.

Yogesh Thorat, MD of Maharashtra Farmers Producer Company (MahaFPC) which is a consortium of about 400 FPCs says that the new farm law about APMCs gives freedom to farmers to choose the market. If the rates are higher than MSP, then farmers sell their produce outside the APMC mandi to FPC’s procurement centres and when market rates are less than MSP, they take produce to the APMC mandi.

“FPCs are ensuring that trade commitments are followed and farmers get money on time if they sell the produce to FPCs. A competitive environment is helping farmers to get the appropriate price for their produce,” said Thorat.

“The government must not import agricultural produce like pulses and onions if the domestic prices go up. Let the market play according to its rules and farmers will shoulder benefits and losses,” said Bharat Dighole, President of Maharashtra State Onion Growers' Association.

FPCs also complained that the stay on implementation of farm laws by the Supreme Court has hampered sales outside mandis.

They fear that the current stalemate over farm laws may become a setback to the alternative marketing system that is being built with the help of new laws.