Impact of amended APMC act on apple business in Himachal Pradesh
Loading...
Date
2013-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Indian Agriculture marketing system is suffering from various problems viz. improper warehousing, lack of grading and packaging, inadequate transport facilities, presence of large number of middlemen, malpractices of traders, inadequate market information and insufficient funds etc. Long chain of middlemen decrease the producer’s share in consumer rupee and exploit the farmer. Though Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, 1964 control and regulate buying and selling operations in all regulated agriculture marketing yards of country APMC has strengthen the marketing system of Agri-produces but there are lot of bottlenecks equipped with APMCs. Once the particular area of state/U.TS is declared as a market area and falls under the jurisdiction of concerned Market Committee, no agency or person is allowed freely to carry on wholesale marketing activities. In this way amended APMC Act prevents anticompetitive practices. Under amended Act there is no compulsion on the producer to sell their produce in APMC market yards, producer are quite free to sell directly to private companies or private market yards or farmers-consumer market. An endeavor was made to analyse the impact of amended APMC act on apple business in Himachal Pradesh. Study has covered two districts of Himachal Pradesh viz. Shimla and Kullu. Many aspects of marketing and production practices have been analysed which are followed by respondents in two groups viz. Group 1 (growers who follow traditional supply chain) and Group 2 (growers who follow traditional and modern supply chain both). It was found that proportionally equal numbers of respondents in both groups are aware of direct marketing, private market yards and Apni Mandi. Study has revealed that channel2 (direct procurement by companies) is most preferred marketing channel followed by channel3 (Private market yards), Channel4 (Apni Mandi) and Channel1 (APMC Market yards). It was also found that as compare to respondents in Group 1, respondents in Group 2 were increasing more land for apple cultivation while respondents in both groups have decreased the land area for apple orchards mainly because of climate changes. Study has revealed that as compare to respondents in Group 1, respondents in Group 2 were more conscious about soil and plant health and apply the nutrition accordingly. It was observed that respondents of Group 2 have done all post harvest management practices with care and faced comparatively fewer losses than respondents in Group 1. It was found that rate of rejuvenation is high in Group 2 and they had affinity towards the Royal Delicious only. However respondents in Group 1 were rejuvenating the old plants by two three more varieties besides Royal Delicious. It was analysed that cost and return structure under traditional channels is almost same for both groups while respondents in Group 2 who follow the modern marketing channels faced comparatively lower marketing cost and entertain higher returns. It was found that marketing efficiency of Adani and Apni Mandi (Channel E) is highest by Shepherd’s formula and Acharya’s formula respectively.
Description
Thesis-PhD
Keywords
apples, Himachal Pradesh, marketing, storage quality, transportation, consumer satisfaction, agribusiness, packaging materials