Gujarat farmers can sell fruit and vegetables directly now

 The Gujarat government has delisted fruit and vegetables from Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, thereby paving the way for farmers to directly sell their produce in the market.

The farmers in the state, till now, were compulsorily forced to sell vegetables and fruits through APMCs.

Now, farmers can directly market their produce to wholesalers, organised retailers and even ordinary consumers. Businessmen too will now not require to obtain any kind of permission or licenses from APMC to purchase fruit and vegetables from farmers. The Agriculture and Co-operation Department of Gujarat government issued a public notification to this effect. This, the government feels, will help farmers get better price and help the government contain prices in the market.

As per the APMC Act, the farmers had to sell vegetables and fruits in APMCs, and only after that did it reach the consumers. 

The farmers thus lost their selling power to APMC vendors, who would generally buy at lower price and sell it to retail consumers by booking hefty profits.

The new notification does not bar sale of fruit and vegetables in the APMCs though. The only difference is that till now APMC levied market fees on the businessmen on sale of their fruit and vegetable, but now they will only have to levy user charges to facilitate the sale of fruits and vegetable in the APMC premises.