Strike at APMC: Why is media not reporting on whether farmers benefitted?

Okay, so the farmers who didn’t want to sell through the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) in Maharashtra, brought their produce of fruits and vegetables to the market on Tuesday and sold them directly to the consumers. Or so the media tell us, with two photographs: one of Textile Minister Sadabhau Khot joining the farmers in Mumbai’s Dadar market and a farmers’ leader helping sell them at APMC Vashi. It is all very well, but the media failed to tell us the crucial information: how much, and at what price were the fruits and vegetables sold? Did the farmers come with weighing machines, even the simple sort? Or did they just sell by quantities roughly estimated? If they did either, at what price did the consumer buy it? [caption id=“attachment_2892220” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The middleman nature of APMCs and their monopoly – farmers have to sell only through the commission agents who are members of the APMCs and who decide at what price their wholesale transactions should take place — is the crux of the issue. That is why the government wanted to free the farmers from the APMC’s clutches. Which is good. So were not the direct sales which got the media excited nominal? And the presence of the leader a photo-op, though it does have the potential to enthuse other farmers to sell their crop in the same fashion? Therein lies the story which I missed sorely, though that of late is a trend. Before I am trolled, what I am writing is a column, an opinion, not a news report. An interesting nugget emerged from the various reports. The Thane edition of Loksatta showing how malls, or superstores in them sold the vegetables cheaper than what were last sold at the APMC mandis. If tomato was Rs 100 a kg at the mandi, the supermarkets sold it at Rs 49, which is cheaper by half and in air-conditioned comfort. Onions went for Rs 19, cheaper by a rupee. Cabbage was picked up by consumers at Rs 35 per piece as against the mandai rate of Rs 100, and its cousin with college education, the cauliflower, did not get any special price tag – it was put on the same scale, truly a humbling experience for it. This issue of excess pricing was protested by the Grahak Panchayat a few days earlier. But the question is, how did this miracle happen? Apparently long-term contracts between the superstores and the farmers made the shoppers at the supermarkets sweat a little less, with an earlier law allowing such transactions. However, whether farmers who sold to supermarket chains benefitted or remained where they were with respect to the APMC commission agents is a matter for journalistic investigation. Question is: will it be done? These stores are exempt from having to transact purchases via the APMCs, which in Maharashtra number 307, Vashi’s being the largest. Maharashtra Times reported on Wednesday that on Tuesday, 215 of the APMCs were open. You can count on profiteering at all levels, except by the farmers.