Despite transport restrictions due to COVID-19 and the social distancing norm in place, the AP State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED) has created history by procuring 7,83,246 MT of crops worth ₹2,571 crore during the rabi season that benefited over 2.35 lakh farmers in the State.
The MARKFED formulated an innovative decentralisation strategy by setting up more than 1,000 procurement centres across the State, which enabled quick procurement and reduced transportation cost for farmers.
“MARKFED has done the highest quantity of procurement in its history in rabi season despite the lockdown conditions. We have initiated the decentralised procurement process to enable easy procurement for farmers while maintaining social distance and curtailing transportation cost,” said Special Commissioner of Agricultural Marketing P.S. Pradyumna, adding that more than 1,000 procurement centres had been registered. “At a time when other States are facing issues, we at MARKFED have successfully supplied fertilisers to farmers for kharif as well as rabi seasons,” he said.
Out of the total procurement, maize procurement stood on top with 3,97,123 MT worth ₹699 crore followed by Bengal gram at 1,78,013 MT (₹868 crore), jower at 1,09,424 MT (₹279 crore), red gram at 60,020 MT (₹348 crore), turmeric at 24,842 MT (₹170 crore) and onion at 957 MT (₹74 lakh).
Quota for women
In order to empower women, the rule of reservation is being implemented in the constitution of market committees. Fifty percent of the chairpersons of these committees will be women, making A.P. the only State in the country with 108 women chairpersons out of 216 AMCs.
Besides, the market committee consisting of 15 members will have 50% reservation for women and 50% for SC/ST/BC/Minorities.