Page 32 - Banking Finance May 2022

ARTICLE

to provide a facilitative framework for electronic trading and
for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto".

The contention in this Act was to allow farmers to sell their
produce anywhere so that they get better remunerative
price, this have given a reason for worry for farmers and
also arthiyas. There has been lot of confusion and views
expressed by many they feel that structure of APMC/
MANDIS will be removed slowly and also the main issue that
Government will dispense with giving Minimum Support
Price and also there will not be procurement by Government
on the basis of MSP. Arthiyas and commission agents are
other section of people who are most affected and
especially the State Government who are generating
substantial income by way of levy, cess or fee. it is the responsibility of the Government to see that large
number of farmers get the benefit of MSP and also need to
If we go little bit into history and understand what made the plug the so called loopholes like exploitation by middlemen/
structure of APMC/MANDIS to come up , the main reason arthiyas in these APMC/Mandis, rather make them
was to safeguard farmers from large retailers, moneylenders redundant. They also feel that any person who is having a
or creditors, because these people used to compel farmers PAN card can be a trader and no licence is required for such
to sell their produce at the farm gate for an extremely low a person to trade, this may lead to unscrupulous traders
price, so to protect farmers from this exploitation it was enter the market by which they may get cheated.
decided that farmers need a common place where they can
sell their produce not less than the pre-determined Farmers also feel that, If any dispute arising out of a
price(MSP) and get the proceeds without any delay. transaction with trader ,the grievance mechanism is
complicated because they have to initially approach sub-
The idea of implementation of MSP was started in mid - Divisional Magistrate and not satisfied with the order of
sixties, when India was food deficit. One of the steps that Sub-Divisional Magistrate can refer an appeal before
Government took at that time to boost domestic production Appellate Authority ( Collector or Additional Collector) .The
through Green revolution and make farmers grow input act expressly bar the jurisdiction of civil courts in entertaining
intensive high yielding crops such as wheat or Paddy and disputes arising under the operation of these legislations,
assured that they get better or minimum support price, this Farmers fee that this makes their position more vulnerable
has encouraged and given confidence to many farmers to as they can't approach civil court for justice.
produce more.
There is another most important section in this chain who
Now as per the new Act, farmers are free to sell as well as are most affected ,they are arthiyas or commission agents
traders can procure the produce outside the APMC/Mandis, who are in large numbers and under whom work large
as per this large corporate players enter the market and number of labourers , with the introduction of this Act,
with their financial strength and available resources can these people feel that most of them will lose their livelyhood.
reach out to farmers and procure the produce at farm gate. The structure of arthiyas has interwoven so much in this
This will be a beneficial step for the farmers but when we setup that farmers feel more comfortable to sell at
go by the farm census in India nearly 85% of farmers own MANDIS/APMC through arthiyas so that they can sell at MSP
less than two hectares of land, such farmers will not have and get money immediately, also arthiyas will be providing
scope to negotiate directly with large scale buyers, because finance to them when needed. Government feels that with
of which they may be forced to sell at a lower price. the opening of farm sector private investment will come and
the influential role of middle men will go away and farmer
Farmers feel that APMC/Mandis have till now played a will be freed from the exploitation and can sell their produce
crucial role and ensure timely payments, they also feel that wherever they get good price.

32 | 2022 | MAY | BANKING FINANCE