Tamil Nadu amends APMC Act, farmers can now sell to e-commerce & other licensed platforms: Report

The Tamil Nadu government has on June 2 amended the state’s Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act 1987 to allow farmers to sell their produce freely as per their choice and convenience.

The move is significant as it now enables farmers to sell their produce to e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and BigBasket if they so choose, says a report by Business Standard.

It also opens up other avenues for farmers such as cold storages, godowns (warehouses) and licensed private markets – all regulation-wise enabled via a 2017 amendment which mandated uniform license and single-point levy.

Earlier, farmers were limited to state-run Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMCs). The shift comes as farmers and end-consumers struggle amid the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic and imposed lockdowns.

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“It may be diluting the importance of the regulated markets, but it is the need of the hour to give the farmers rooms to get better money for the produce,” Gagandeep Singh Bedi, agricultural production commissioner told the paper.

The Centre on June 1 rolled out guidelines for Lockdown 5.0 (to continue till June 30) dubbed ‘Unlock 1’, enumerating phase-wise relaxation of restrictions on most activities in areas except containment zones. State government are allowed to continue with current measures in areas deemed hotspots.

Today is the 71st day of India’s nationwide lockdown, meant to curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in India stand at 207,615, having crossed the landmark 200,000 mark on June 2. The death toll from the outbreak in India is at 5,815. Globally, there have been over 63.8 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 3.8 lakh people have died so far.

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