Six states have decided to join hands to offer their mandis (markets), cold stores and guest houses to each other so that their farmers can find market and remunerative price for their produce.
An understanding to this effect was reached in a meeting of chairmen and managing directors of mandi boards of the six states in Chandigarh, chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Sunday.
Apart from Punjab, the states that took part in the meeting include Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Goa and Assam.
Batting for further promotion of inter-state trade for the remunerative price of produce to farmers on one hand and supply of quality products at affordable price to people on the other, Mann said all the states must join hands in developing a common platform to buy and sell commodities.
‘This is the need of the hour to safeguard the interests of both consumers and farmers. When the entire world has emerged as a single market, unnecessary shackles within the states regarding production and marketing of produce should be removed. This ‘farm to fork’ approach and availability of goods within all the states will immensely benefit consumers and farmers in a big way. It is imperative to adopt this approach to ensure that farmers get their profit,’ Mann said.
The Punjab CM said that due to ever escalating cost of farm inputs and lower returns, agriculture is no longer a profitable venture. ‘If the idea of a common platform for marketing of produce is evolved, it will help farmers in a big way,’ he said.
Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board chairman Aditya Devi Lal Chautala, the brains behind the initiative, said, ‘Each state should set up a special agriculture zone spread over 200 acres of land where the farmers coming from other states can store their produce to further sell there.’
BJP leader and grandson of former deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, Aditya said: ‘Haryana and Punjab produce citrus fruits like kinnow. Farmers in Goa produces cashew nuts and coconuts while Uttarakhand is known for its millets. Punjab and Haryana farmers can supply kinnows to of Goa while farmers from Goa can sell cashew nuts and coconuts in our states’.
Punjab Mandi Board chairman Harchand Singh Barsat said: ‘In Punjab, we have mandis in every town, every district. We want to offer this infrastructure to the farmers of all parts of the country. If farmers from Goa want to sell coconut in our mandis, we would provide them space. Similarly, we would like a similar arrangement when our farmers go there to sell their kinnows and muskmelon’.
According to Aditya, Mann has assured to hold an inter-state conference like the one held in Haryana’s Panchkula on Friday on the same issue.
In the Panchkula conference, Haryana agriculture and farmers welfare minister JP Dalal stressed on the importance of sharing infrastructure while emphasizing the need for all state agriculture marketing boards to create a shared fund to promote the progress of farmers. Dalal also pitched for collaboration between marketing and mandi boards in different states.
He also highlighted the geographic advantage of Haryana, which is close to Delhi and caters to the daily needs of nearly 5 crore people for fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and more. He stated that the focus should be on developing infrastructure to support this.
In the Chandigarh meeting, Mann also explained to the visiting delegations about the utilisation of rural development fund (RDF) by the state for public welfare. However, he bemoaned that a whopping sum of Rs 5,637.4 crore of the state’s RDF is still pending with the Union government. ‘Despite various efforts, the Union government is not releasing these funds which is a grave injustice to the state, he said.
Apart from Chautala and Bartsat, otyehrs who attended the meeting include Goa Mandi Board chairman Parkash Chander Velip, and Uttarakhand Mandi Board managing director Ashish Bhatgain.
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