Role of state interventions in marketing of horticultural crops in Gujarat

Fruits and vegetables are currently marketed through the “open market transactions system” under the conventional APMC regulations. Market yards set up under the APMC Acts are playing a vital role in terms of price discovery, as well as product aggregation and disaggregation along the chain. However, the present marketing system of horticultural produce in the state, lacks system approach. Producers have often failed to realize expenses incurred on transportation to markets, let alone the cost of production and capital investment, during the period of glut. Fruit and vegetable growers are receiving only a small part of price paid by the consumers as lion's share is being taken by chain of middlemen. The high profit margin of intermediaries is quite disproportionate to their services. In order to increase the income of farmers and promote the role of private sector in the agriculture marketing there is need to improve existing APMC's for better realization of producers share in consumer's rupee. Thus, it is imperative to make our APMC more vibrant and strong in terms of infrastructure, management and transparency. It is also important to understand implications of FDI in retail for wholesale markets and traders/CAs and therein there is need for more efficient and lower cost APMC markets in the state. It is essential to facilitate development of marketing infrastructure through private sector investments and create avenues for alternate marketing channels for farmers for sales transactions of their produce where prices are remunerative to them.