Impact of amended APMC act on apple business in Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Indian agricultural marketing system is suffering from various problems viz. improper warehousing, lack of grading and packaging, inadequate transport facilities, presence of large number of middlemen, malpractices of traders, inadequate market information and insufficient funds etc. Long chain of middlemen decrease the producer’s share in consumer rupee and exploit the farmer. Though Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, 1964 control and regulate buying and selling operations at all regulated agriculture marketing yards but there are lot of inefficiencies involved in practices of APMCs. However amended APMC Act prevents anticompetitive practices. There is no compulsion on the producer to sell their produce in APMC market yards, producer are quite free to sell directly to private companies or private market yards or farmers-consumer market under amended APMC Act. The present Study has analysed awareness and perception of apple growers regarding amended APMC Act. Two districts of Himachal Pradesh viz. Shimla and Kullu were selected on the basis of highest apple production. Apple growers were divided in two groups viz. Group 1 (growers who follow traditional supply chain) and Group 2 (growers who follow traditional and modern supply chain both).