A dedicated 100-acre market area with top-notch infrastructure, banking, storage, processing, and packaging services all under one roof, alternatives for offline and online trading, legalization of field trade, and farmer ownership. These are a few of the intended characteristics of the private agriculture market that Sahyadri Farmer Producer Company is launching (FPC).
The FPC has obtained the first permission in the nation to open a private agricultural mandi (market) in Dindori, Maharashtra’s Nashik district. The market’s construction will cost 25 crores over the following three months. At our mandi in Nashik, where farmers will have a vote in trading, we are making sure that top-notch infrastructure is built up. Facilities for storage and auction are being prepared. For internet trading, Sahyadri FPC has prepared specialized software. “We aim to offer our members a whole ecosystem.
Our farmers have access to a sizable domestic market, but there is no marketing infrastructure. The current marketing strategy is insufficient, continued Shinde. Sahyadri FPC offers Nashik farmers the chance to sell their products in its market, they claim, as grapes are never sent to APMCs for selling. Farmers have been griping that a small number of groups control the Tasgaon and Pimpalgaon raisin markets, forcing farmers to rely on them for a better price.
At the Sahyadri APMC, they now seek to discover a better solution. The competition will result from private marketplaces. The benefit will be to farmers. The FPC market will be difficult for conventional APMCs to compete in. Crop- and member-specific FPCs will focus on introducing their products into the system. Competition is essential for enhancing the market system, according to Shinde.
