Agricultural produce market committee

An Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) is a marketing board established by state governments in India to ensure farmers are safeguarded from exploitation by large retailers, as well as ensuring the farm to retail price spread does not reach excessively high levels.

[1] Prior to independence in 1947, the major concern of government policy related to agricultural marketing was to keep the prices of food for the consumers and agro-raw materials for the industry in check.

However, after independence, there came a need to protect the interest of farmers and to provide them incentive prices to augment the production of agricultural commodities.

Common throughout the country were problems of local money lenders extorting high amounts of foodgrains from the farmer, at throwaway prices, as interest.

The concept of a agriculture produce market regulation programme in India dates back to the British Raj: raw cotton was the first farm produce to attract the attention of the Government due to the anxiety of British rulers to make available the supplies of pure cotton at reasonable prices to the textile mills of Manchester (UK).

In 2015, the year's Union Budget proposed to create a United National Agriculture Market[3] with the help of state governments and NITI Ayog.

Wholesale and retail traders (e.g. shopping mall owners) and food processing companies cannot buy produce directly from a farmer.

The Government of Karnataka has created APMCs in many towns to enable farmers to sell their produce at reasonable prices.

[15] In July 2016, the Maharashtra Government removed fruits and vegetables from the purview of the APMCs,[16] urging farmers to directly bring their produce for sale in Mumbai.