This column appears at a time when the Uttarakhand Cabinet has given its assent to the reformed APMC Act, which will open the way for accessing Central funds for the establishment of agriculture infrastructure, especially on the processing, marketing and value addition. For several years now, this columnist has been lamenting that both West Bengal and Uttarakhand, the states where your columnist has worked, had not reformed the APMC Act. The positive news from Uttarakhand is especially welcome, for Himachal has already taken the lead in establishing the first terminal market among the states which are covered under the Horticulture Mission for North east and Himalayan States. Here is an opportunity for establishing a terminal market with transparent mechanisms for price discovery based on scientific grading and sorting, timely and assured payments through banks and ensuring that the farmer gets a higher share in the consumer’s rupee. Your columnist recalls that the idea had first been mooted in 2003-03, when Dr RS Tolia was the FRDC, and a team had been sent to Bengaluru (then Bangalore) to study the Safal National Exchange. Even as it comes with a delay of nearly a decade, the initiative is most welcome, as Uttarakhand is becoming an important hub for sourcing fruits and vegetables by the NCT of Delhi. The real reform however will come when a dedicated fleet of refrigerated vans can also assure delivery ex New Delhi for the within a five to ten hour transit time. This will require some intervention at the level of the Government of India on the lines of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) which has recently been enacted in the USA to ensure uninterrupted movement and top priority to vehicles carrying perishables. Next week, the column will comment on this Act after the first round of discussions with some critical stakeholders in this sector.
Meanwhile, AgriMatters would like to share some ideas which have come up in the pre budget discussions with the Finance Minster. The first among these is a special Mission on Agriculture in Urban and Peri-urban Areas. The broad objectives of this mission include enhancement of production of short duration perishables within close proximity to urban clusters, i.e. within a radius of seventy five to hundred kilometres besides organizing farmers for marketing their produce. It also aims to provide an assured market for organic and GAP certified fruits and vegetables to urban markets, besides enhancing livelihood opportunities for urban youth by training them as para professionals for kitchen gardens and roof top farming.
Under this scheme, assistance will be given for infusion of technology support, organisation of farmers clusters and groups, marketing support to RWAs, slum dwellers, urban youth and farmers in close vicinity of all state capitals , and metropolitan/urban areas with a population of ten lakh and above to support production of short duration fruits and vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, melons, cucumbers, turnips, radishes, fresh salads, onion etc) . It will look at optimising available spaces, including roof tops, commons, embankments, institutional lands and encourage urban nurseries to provide good quality seeds/planting materials in flower pots. Training of urban youth as gardeners with specialization in kitchen gardens can also be taken up under this Mission.
An important aspect of this Mission will be to give a major thrust and emphasis on protected cultivation, which will make at least the shorter gestation crops ‘weather proof’. While longer gestation crops have some flexibility and time to recover from a week long frost, cauliflowers and cabbages and onions get hit with the slightest vagary of nature. If at least some share of the vegetable requirements of the urban centres is to be met from green house cultivation, this will add to predictability of arrivals, quality and prices. Municipal Corporations will also be encouraged to look into using all available urban spaces for vegetable cultivation to ensure that fresh produce is available in close proximity. This has all possible advantages – from the standpoint of environment, ecology, equity and livelihoods. Recycling urban waste for high density plantations on institutional lands, and for roof –top or tub/bucket gardening is another positive takeaway in the process. Last but not the least, the increasing incomes and awareness in urban areas call for a fundamental change in the way we look at the interface of what we eat and how we store, process and produce it!
‘A penny saved is a penny earned’: likewise a ‘grain saved is a grain harvested’. This makes warehousing a very critical component in the overall strategy of ensuring regularity arrivals in urban markets. However, warehousing has primarily been for cereals, which in any case have a much longer shelf life. However, now that the price of onions and tomatoes is also becoming very sensitive for the political economy, there is need to establish primary level warehousing and storage for commodities like onions and tomatoes. We shall take up onions first, because the price sensitivity of onions is higher than any other perishable. If India produces 130 lakh MT of onions every year in a three crop cycle of Rabi, Kharif and Late Kharif, then it must build a primary level onion cold storage capacity of at least 10-15 lakh tonnes to have an effective price stabilisation strategy in place. While knee jerk reactions like ban on exports, or duty free imports do help in sending market signal and effecting rice corrections in highly volatile situations, in general, such interventions ought to be avoided. This is another area that the Finance Ministry may like to announce fiscal concessions to encourage more and more farmers, or their cooperatives from establishing these storage spaces.
The column ends by pointing out that developing the storage and warehousing infrastructure for perishables can also be done at the instance of the state governments .Here is calling Uttarakhand to take the lead …..