Farmers may be allowed to sell directly to consumers

NEW DELHI: The finance ministry is drawing up a plan to facilitate direct selling platforms for fruit and vegetable farmers, a move aimed at cutting out middlemen and containing food inflation, which faces the risk of a re-emergence if monsoon falters. The ministry is working out changes in the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, which governs marketing of agriculture produce, to allow farmers to sell directly to consumers that will save high intermediation costs. 


The plan will be presented to the new government that will take office after the elections. "The idea is to cut cost of intermediation.... The platform would seek to bring about transparency and cut through middlemen by allowing sale through this platform," a senior finance ministry official told ET. The blue print is based on a study of Azadpur Mandi in Delhi, the biggest distribution centre for fruits and vegetables in the world, which despite scale has high intermediation costs.