APMC amendment on cards

The West Bengal government is actively considering an amendment to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act 1972, as the matter is being deliberated at the “highest level”, according to a senior government official.

A high-level committee comprising secretaries of government departments had recently submitted their recommendations in favour of amending the Act, said Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary, department of agriculture, West Bengal, on the sidelines of a press conference organised by the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), in Kolkata on Tuesday.

“The Act is being studied at the highest level within the government. It is more likely to be on the lines of Model APMC Act suggested by the Central government. The committee of secretaries have also submitted their recommendations on the matter,” said Chopra. On being asked if the Act would allow contract farming, he said, “while individuals may not be allowed to undertake contract farming, it could be allowed at a community level, like with the involvement of self help groups or agricultural societies.” Contract farming is not allowed under the APMC Act 1972.

Notably, West Bengal is one of the three states which is yet to amend APMC Act. Earlier, Mortaza Hossain, West Bengal agricultural marketing minister and a Forward Bloc leader had said that the government was seriously considering the proposal and would decide soon on this.

Asim Dasgupta, state finance minister had also said that West Bengal would have to act fast on the proposal as the procurement season had started. The Forward Bloc-controlled state marketing board had refused to renew the APMC licence to German wholesaler Metro Cash & Carry last year. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee finally used his special power to renew the licence. Reliance Retail was also denied licence.

State government sources explained that the current APMC Act mandated that the companies would have to procure from the mandis. If the proposal of an amendment materialises, farmers could sell to any one they wanted. Union minister for food processing industries, Subodh Kant Sahay, had been pursuing the states for quite some time to amend the Act.