Cabinet approves ordinance for 'One India, One Agriculture Market'

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, which will pave the way for creating 'One India, One Agriculture Market'.

Briefing the decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, said the ordinance will create an ecosystem where farmers and traders will enjoy freedom of choice of sale and purchase of agri-produce.

He said it will also promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the physical premises of markets notified under the state Agricultural Produce Marketing legislations, and this is a historic step in unlocking the vastly regulated agriculture markets in the country.

There are restrictions for farmers in selling agri-produce outside the notified APMC market yards. The farmers are also restricted to sell the produce only to the registered licensees of the state governments.

Further, barriers exist in free-flow of agricultural produce between various states owing to the prevalence of various APMC legislations enacted by the state governments.

The ordinance basically aims at creating additional trading opportunities outside the APMC market yards to help farmers get remunerative prices due to additional competition.

The ordinance will certainly pave the way for creating 'One India, One Agriculture Market', according to the Agriculture Ministry.