Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Need of marketing reforms' that was published in Newsband

Need of marketing reforms

Constant changes in prices of onions and other vegetables causes problems to consumers. There is an urgent need for marketing reforms.

Raids on top onion traders in the Nashik-Lasalgaon belt had brought down wholesale prices by about 30 per cent. It proved that there do exist vested interests in agriculture marketing too.

The demand-supply problem in the market should be solved. Consumers are often faced with nasty surprises. New markets, e-NAM and contractual arrangements such as direct selling have obviously not taken off. In some states the APMC infrastructure has withered away.

India is estimated to need 42,000 mandis against the present 7,700, with each linked to an e-NAM platform. This will ensure fair price discovery for consumers and producers.

The Centre must be clear about what it must — and must not — do. It should not enforce export curbs on onion and create a supply glut. It should create more mandis in partnership with private players and also create value chains to ensure supply-demand stability.

Funds set aside for the Price Stabilisation Fund need to be increased. Horticulture output growth over the last decade has outpaced that of food grains but in the absence of a marketing backbone, growing vegetables and fruit is turning out into a high-stakes game. E-NAM should be promoted by state government. Protection of the interest of farmers as well as consumers is essential. Avoid monopoly in horticulture sector and quality products needs to be secured.

The government should re boost E-Nam. State government must take the initiative to secure farmers interest as well as consumers. The vicious role played by the middlemen in arresting the supply of key vegetables like onion, potato, tomato etc. and releasing them when the prices are rocket raising should be stopped. Governments so far miserably met a fiasco in creating s national market for agricultural products. E-NAM markets are only in paper. Integrating the agri markets countrywide and enhancing supply at the needed regions are the ways. Big mandi owners must be specially tracked to prevent hoarding of key horticulture products. Facilitating timely imports with dynamic import policies will manage crisis. The government must severely punish hoarders and confiscate their trading license.