Following the passage of the three new Farm Acts passed by the centre, FPCs in Maharashtra are now increasingly bypassing APMC Mandis that once had control over the price. The farmers now are selling directly to private players and that has resulted in profits to the farmers, Financial Express has reported.
The Farm Bills that were passed by the Centre recently seems to have ended the monopoly of APMC and middlemen who had the power to dictate the price to the farmer for the produce. The protests staged by the opposition parties fizzled out owing to the grassroot level changes happening as many Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) are bypassing APMC Mandis to directly deal with private buyers in the open market.
“We decided to share some of the profit with the farmers who had sold their maize to us and distributed a bonus of Rs 10 per quintal to the farmers. The amount is small but is a gesture of appreciation”, the FPC’s founder Ashish Nafade has been quoted as saying.
The FPCs also have plans to brand their products and also tap into the international market and wants big corporate houses like ITC to sell their produce and are registering on online platforms for a wider market reach.