Government of India has been making concerted efforts to facilitate farmers in direct marketing and assure better returns.  At the same time the Department issued advisories to maintain social distancing in the mandis to prevent the spread of Corona Virus in the wake of COVID19 pandemic. The States have been requested to promote the concept of ‘Direct marketing’ to facilitate farmers/ group of farmers/FPOs/ Cooperatives in selling their produce to bulk buyers/big retailers/processors etc.

The Union Agriculture Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar sent a letter on 16^th April, 2020 to the Chief Ministers of States reiterating the need for direct marketing through Cooperatives/ Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) etc and encouraged all the stakeholders and farmers to adopt this process. The Department also issued an advisory to the States to promote direct marketing without insisting for licensing procedures and facilitate the farmers in timely marketing of farm produce.

In order to decongest wholesale markets & to boost the supply chain, following two modules under National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) have been introduced:

1. FPO Module: FPOs can directly trade with e-NAM portal. They can upload produce details from collection centers with picture/quality parameter and avail the bidding facility without physically reaching to the mandis.
2. Warehouse Based Trading Module: Farmers can sell their produce from Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) registered warehouses notified as deemed market, and do not physically bring the produce to the nearest mandis.

Various States have adopted Direct Marketing and taken several measures:

• Karnataka exempted Cooperative Institutions and FPOs in the State for engaging in wholesale trade of agricultural produce outside the market yards;
• Tamil Nadu exempted market fee on all notified agricultural produce;
• Uttar Pradesh allowed trading in e-NAM platform from  farm  gate  and promoted  issuance of unified licence to processors  for direct purchase from farmers and  also allowed FPOs to undertake procurement operations of wheat;
• Rajasthan allowed direct marketing by traders, processors  and  FPOs. In addition to that, Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS)/ Large Area Multi-purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS) in Rajasthan have been declared as deemed markets.
• Apart from Individuals, firms, and processing units, Madhya Pradesh  has allowed to set up private purchase centres outside the market–yard to purchase directly from farmers with an application fee of Rs. 500/- only.
• Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat have also allowed direct marketing without requirement of any licence.
• Uttarakhand has declared Warehouse/Cold storage and Processing plants as sub-mandis.
• Uttar Pradesh Government has recently relaxed the rules and norms for declaring warehouses/ cold storages as Market-yards.  

Impact of Direct Marketing:

• Rajasthan has issued more than 1,100 direct marketing licences to processors during lockdown period wherein farmers have already started selling directly to the processors.  Out of more than 550 PACS declared as market-yards in rural areas, 150 PACS have become functional for direct marketing and village traders are performing trade transactions successfully. 
• Due to market fee waiver in Tamil Nadu, it was observed that traders have preferred to buy the produce from farmers from their farm gate/ villages.
• In Uttar Pradesh direct linkages have been established by FPOs with farmers and traders thereby supplying their produce to consumers in cities which saved wastages and directly benefitted the farmers. Further, the State has facilitated in establishing linkages with FPOs and Zomato Food Delivery App thereby ensuring smooth distribution of veggies to consumers.

As per the report received from the States, the Direct Marketing has facilitated the famers groups, FPOs, Cooperatives and all the stakeholders in effective and timely marketing of farm produce.

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APS/PK/MS/BA