ri   lt re and ood     ana ement       8.27
          (v) Replaces licensing with registrations                      Model Act and declare the entire state
                 of market functionaries, which would                    a single market with one licence valid
                 allow them           to operate in one or               across the entire state and removing all
                 more different market areas;                            restrictions on movement of agricultural
         (vi) Establishment of consumers’ and                            produce within the state.
                 farmers’ markets to facilitate direct sale of      (ii) The NAM (National Agriculture Market)
                 agricultural produce to consumers;                      through an Agri-Tech Infrastructure
        (vii) Creation of marketing infrastructure                       Fund (ATIF) has been established by
                 from the revenue earned by the APMCs;                   Government of India in July 2015, which
       (viii) Provides some freedom to the farmers to                    will be implemented up to 2017–18.
                 sell their produce directly to the contract-            NAM will provide a common e-market
                 sponsors or in the market set up by private             platform of regulated wholesale markets
                 individuals, consumers or producers;                    in states/UTs (those states /UTs that
         (ix) Increases the competitiveness of the                       are desirous to joint he platform). The
                 market of agri-produce by allowing                      SFAC (Small Farmers Agribusiness
                 common registration of market                           Consortium) will implement this
                 intermediaries.                                         e-platform and will cover 250, 200 and
           Many of the states have partially adopted                     135 mandis during 2015–16, 2016-17
     the provisions of the model APMC Act and                            and 2017–18 respectively.
     amended their respective APMC Acts. Some of                         The DAC & FW (Department of
     the states have not framed rules to implement                       Agriculture,     Cooperation       Farmers
     the amended provisions, which indicate hesitancy                    Welfare) will meet expenses on software
     on the part of the state governments to liberalise                  and its customisation for the regulated
     the statutory compulsion on farmers to sell their                   mandis of the states/UTs free of cost. To
     produce through the APMCs. Some states (such                        Integrate with the NAM, the APMCs of
     as Karnataka)32 have however adopted changes                        the states/UTs will need to meet certain
     to create greater competition within the state—                     pre-requisites, which are given below:
     popularly known as the Karnataka Model.
                                                                         (a) a single license to be valid across the
           The central government is closely working                         states,
     with state governments to re-orient states’ APMC
                                                                         (b) single point levy of market fee, and
     Acts in order to provide for establishment of
                                                                         (c) provision for electronic auction as a
     private market yards/private markets. As per the
     Union Budget 2017–18 and Economic Survey                                mode for price discovery.
     2016-17 some of the recent initiatives taken in                     Majority of the states and all of the UTs
     this regard are as follows:                                         have shown their interest to join the
                                                                         e-platform.
           (i) A comprehensive advisory issued to the
                 states to go beyond the provisions of the         (iii) On the request of the central government,
                                                                         a number of state governments have
       32.    Other states like Maharashtra, Tamil nadu and Andhra       exempted the marketing of fruits and
              Pradesh did also for reforms in their APMC’s taking        vegetables from the purview of the APMC
              clues from the Modekl APMC Act—making these
              states also to have some synergy coming into their         Act. The NCT of Delhi has put fruits
              agriculture market.                                        and vegetables outside its APMC. The