"To see the complete picture, first you have to step out of the frame."-Salman Rushdie, in The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Throw back to the era when the British East India Company was at its peak in India, before the revolt broke out in Barrackpore. When princely kingdoms let their doors open to the commercial world and allowed their farmers to be contracted to produce what the company wanted. Naturally, cash crops like Poppy were numero uno on the list, leaving the farmers to starve and die themselves. A fact highlighted well in The Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. To prevent such a catastrophe in the modern era and keeping inline with its socialist ideals, the Government of India came up with the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act or APMC.
Under the APMC which was passed by different state governments, farmers could avoid outright exploitation at the hands of the traders and capitalists and sell their goods at regulated prices at Government authorized 'Mandi's'. Here, all traders were to have a government license to operate and this way the exploitation was curbed if not completely stopped.
What was not foreseen was the trouble that liberalization would bring to these state institutions. For though the farmers were well protected by laws, On the ground, reality was biting. Mandi's had turned into private run houses where traders and merchants ganged up to give fewer options to farmers, thereby increasing their woe's and reducing them to penury. Selling produce at inflated prices in markets elsewhere. Farmers were committing suicides (..still do) and the grains and vegetables that everyone needs to feed themselves were not available to MNC's and private players to grow and control.
Noble projects like the E-Choupal by ITC started in June 2000 have made limited progress and come to a standstill thanks to very few states making amendments to their APMC acts (UP, Karnataka among them). Without that, ITC and the others can only procure coffee, or oil seeds and soyabean.
So much for liberalization. Even spot trading for commodities in agricultural space by MCX and NCDEX is a dead rubber so far. Big time players like Wallmart have been banging on the doors for long and small time players like online e-groceries sellers like Ekstop, Harisabzi, Satvikshop and Bigbasket are scratching their heads. If only this ammendment to APMC would come sooner than later, if only it was easier to get what they want without the stranglehold of the APMC. To achieve commercial viability for e-commerce retailers of groceries a long term plan has to include pushing for reforms. The huge amounts of investment in infrastructure and logistics development by these companies and the costs of web optimization are not going to bring in any fruit in the near future if this Frankenstein law is not tinkered with.
- Zain Siddiqui
Throw back to the era when the British East India Company was at its peak in India, before the revolt broke out in Barrackpore. When princely kingdoms let their doors open to the commercial world and allowed their farmers to be contracted to produce what the company wanted. Naturally, cash crops like Poppy were numero uno on the list, leaving the farmers to starve and die themselves. A fact highlighted well in The Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. To prevent such a catastrophe in the modern era and keeping inline with its socialist ideals, the Government of India came up with the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act or APMC.
Under the APMC which was passed by different state governments, farmers could avoid outright exploitation at the hands of the traders and capitalists and sell their goods at regulated prices at Government authorized 'Mandi's'. Here, all traders were to have a government license to operate and this way the exploitation was curbed if not completely stopped.
What was not foreseen was the trouble that liberalization would bring to these state institutions. For though the farmers were well protected by laws, On the ground, reality was biting. Mandi's had turned into private run houses where traders and merchants ganged up to give fewer options to farmers, thereby increasing their woe's and reducing them to penury. Selling produce at inflated prices in markets elsewhere. Farmers were committing suicides (..still do) and the grains and vegetables that everyone needs to feed themselves were not available to MNC's and private players to grow and control.
Noble projects like the E-Choupal by ITC started in June 2000 have made limited progress and come to a standstill thanks to very few states making amendments to their APMC acts (UP, Karnataka among them). Without that, ITC and the others can only procure coffee, or oil seeds and soyabean.
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| The E Choupal movement by ITC brings not just an option to sell goods but provides them Soil information, Weather reports and best farming practices on an online platform |
So much for liberalization. Even spot trading for commodities in agricultural space by MCX and NCDEX is a dead rubber so far. Big time players like Wallmart have been banging on the doors for long and small time players like online e-groceries sellers like Ekstop, Harisabzi, Satvikshop and Bigbasket are scratching their heads. If only this ammendment to APMC would come sooner than later, if only it was easier to get what they want without the stranglehold of the APMC. To achieve commercial viability for e-commerce retailers of groceries a long term plan has to include pushing for reforms. The huge amounts of investment in infrastructure and logistics development by these companies and the costs of web optimization are not going to bring in any fruit in the near future if this Frankenstein law is not tinkered with.
- Zain Siddiqui
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