Agri-marketing reforms must for 2nd green revolution: Min

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today called upon state governments to bring reforms in agricultural marketing in order to achieve the second green revolution.
He also praised the Karnataka government for taking a lead in setting up of an online agri-trade system saying that the Centre will adopt best practices from the state model.
Addressing a conference of state agriculture ministers here, Singh said: "We believe that without reforming agri- marketing practices, we will not be able to deliver the true value of the farmer's produce to him. The second Green Revolution can only take off with a marketing revolution."

Compared to several countries, India incurs too much wastage of its farm produce due to inefficient and antiquated marketing practices, he said in a statement issued by the Agriculture Ministry.
The Minister also emphasised on the need to modernise farm mandis for the benefit of farmers, traders and consumers in order to lower intermediation costs, wastage and prices for the final consumer.
The conference, attended by 23 states/UTs, discussed the Centre's scheme on setting up of online national agriculture market, which the Union Cabinet had cleared last week with an outlay of Rs 5,000 crore for the next five years.

The state agriculture ministers deliberated on the online agri-trade model being implemented by Karnataka. The state has integrated 55 mandis with trade to the tune of Rs 8,500 crore.

Aiming to replicate Karnataka model at the national level, Singh said, "Such efforts of Karnataka are indeed worth a study in order to better appreciate the scope of Unified National Agriculture Market."
The Centre's proposed Online National Agriculture Market (NAM) will adopt many of the best practices from this model but also look at similar reform initiatives in other states to incorporate the same into its design, he said.
The Centre's online agri-trady platform will initially integrate 585 mandis across the country. The software would be provided free of cost to the states and in addition grant of up to Rs 30 lakhs per mandi as a one time measure for related equipment and infrastructure.

"This is only a beginning and the idea is to initiate the states so that they can experience the benefits of the e- platform and be encouraged enough to take it forward from there," the Minister said.
With the implementation of e-agri-trade platform, the government expects significant benefits through higher returns to farmers, lower transaction costs to buyers and stable prices and availability to consumers in a period of 5-7 years, he added.