The Karnataka government?s recent move to introduce smart cards for farmers is a step in the right direction as it will enable them to weed out middlemen and corrupt government officials.
Recently, there has been great concern about the inefficiency in marketing of agriculture produce in India. It is believed that poor linkages in marketing channels and even worse infrastructure have contributed to food inflation. Farmer markets are being operated via different models across states. There are around 8,500 full-fledged agriculture produce marketing committee (APMCs) yards in the country. States like TN and AP are running Uzhavar Sandhai and Rythu Bazar, respectively, that help farmers sell their produce directly to the end user. There are government-owned markets for specific agriculture commodities like sabudana, turmeric, etc, but they also don?t ensure the farmers getting real value for their produce due to the middlemen menace and erring government officials.
The implementation of this scheme will allow Karnataka?s cocoon farmers to enter the market without any middlemen, display the produce, auction the produce on their own, collect the money without any officials? help, ultimately resulting in the farmers being paid the full value for their produce. The state is likely to introduce the smart card in a phased manner at all of its 54 cocoon exchanges to regulate its cocoon trade worth Rs 1,000 crore.
This announcement comes at the time when the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) is taking steps in association with four national commodity exchanges to automate APMCs by installing ?ticker boards?. So far the FMC has brought 183 APMCs under the ?ticker board? system and is in the process of adding another 1,000 APMCs this fiscal. This will help the farmers know the spot and future market prices, and market their produce accordingly while planning for field-level operations. However, this kind of automations should aim to completely free the farmers from middlemen and interruption of erring officials at any stage of trading. The proposed scheme would be a trendsetter in this direction.
?jaishankar.jayaramiah@expressindia.com