Study suggests review of APMC structure and function in Nagaland

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 28: Marketing agricultural produce is critical for the development of an agrarian economy such as Nagaland. In order to regulate and develop agriculture-marketing systems in the state, the government enacted the Nagaland Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005.

Establishment, improvement, development and regulation of markets and marketing systems for agricultural produce including processing and export thereof and other related matters comes under the purview of this Act.

This was stated in the Directorate of Evaluation report on ‘marketing facilities for agriculture and allied products in Nagaland.’ The study was based on primary and secondary data collection through structured schedules, interview and discussion with various stakeholders.

The reference period of the study was 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 and the field survey for the collection of data was carried out in the months of November and December 2016.

The Nagaland State Agriculture Marketing Board (NSAMB) is the apex body for regulation and development of agricultural marketing system in the state. Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) is a statutory body under NSAMB, which is entrusted with the responsibility of the development of marketing infrastructure, regulation of pricing system and undertaking transaction of agricultural goods.

According to the report, there are 19 APMCs in the state, constituted as per the Nagaland Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act 2005 and all the APMCs located in the 11 districts were covered. The APMCs have reported that no grant-in-aid and financial allocation were received after the financial year 2013-14, and that the various APMCs in the districts were willing to work for the progress of the marketing system but has remained non-functional due to lack of financial resources.

In order to boost agricultural economy at the grassroots level, Village Marketing Committee (VMC) is established under respective APMC jurisdictions, and in accordance with the Act there are 19 APMCs (See table)

The list of notified agricultural products which comes under the purview of the board are ginger (both dry and fresh); chillies (dry only); maize (grain only); paddy and its products; oilseeds; soyabean; khollar (local rajma); turmeric (both fresh and dry); cardamom (both fresh and dried); passion fruit and its products; and pineapple and its products.

As per the report of the Evaluation department, the field survey faced major limitations as it was observed that some of the respondents had provided false information; under-coverage where traders from some of the sample villages were left out at the time of field survey for collection of necessary information and data; and some of the selected sample farmers, traders, VMC chairman and APMC chairman were not interviewed as they were not available at the time of the survey.

As per the report, it was stated that most of the farmers use only locally available seeds and the productivity of those seeds was significantly low. The government, it stated, should provide quality seeds to the farmers in order to increase the productivity of agricultural products. Most of the farmers had no access to marketing opportunities and therefore it was imperative to create marketing linkages for the farmers to sell the goods.

The report suggested that capacity building for the farmers was vital for success in agriculture. Knowledge and skill upgrade in the field of agricultural practises and keeping pace with the change in agricultural technology needed to be imparted to the farmers at regular intervals. It further stated that out of 989 farmers interviewed, only 122 farmers have attended training programmes organised by various government departments and agencies.

The basic functionality and structure of APMC need to be reviewed, the report suggested.