Odisha state agriculture marketing board: An emerging backstop to farmers

Agriculture in Odisha is the mainstay of majority of the populace and thus, holds the key to socio-economic development of the State. It suffers from frequent natural calamities like cyclones, drought and floods. Despite wide annual variations in its growth, the agriculture sector grew in real terms at 2011-12 prices, at a rate of 12.34 per cent during 2015-16 (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Govt. of Odisha). The present agricultural marketing system of the state is governed by the Odisha State Agricultural Produce Marketing Act, which came into force back in the year 1956. There are 65 Regulated Market Committees (RMCs) functioning under the supervision and control of the Odisha State Agriculture Marketing Board (OSAMB) and the Directorate. OSAMB, a statutory body, came in to existence in the year 1984 for exercising superintendence and control over the working of the RMCs constituted under the Act with the intention of regulating the sale and purchase of agricultural produce in the State. A Regulated Market Committee is a democratically elected body consisting of elected members from different constituencies such as farmers, traders, farmer’s cooperatives, local urban bodies etc. Generally the concerned sub-collector or collector, under whose jurisdiction an RMC falls, is nominated as the chairman of the RMC. There are 58 principal market yards and 378 sub market yards with a total of 436 market yards functioning under the RMCs in 194 blocks of the state. There are also 1630 temporary market yards for paddy procurement functioning under Market Committees. Besides 108 cattle markets, 44 numbers of Krushak Bazars, 3 maize markets, 9 cotton markets, 3 fish markets and 2 coconut markets are functioning in the state under OSAMB. Thus, it plays a vital role not only in stimulating production and consumption but also in accelerating the pace of economic development.