Changes in APEDA Act, Essential Commodities Act required to help farmers: Kant

New Delhi: Changes are required in the APMC Act and the Essential Commodities Act to help farmers get better prices of their produce, Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.

Amul succeeded because of professional management, it was able to do forward and backward linkages, it was able to bring in technology, it was able to do value addition, Kant said while delivering the 20th Vaikunth Bhai Mehta Memorial Lecture at the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) here.

"And, that is what Indian agricultural cooperative movement requires -- better technology, better marketing, better seeds, better fertiliser and with that, I have no doubt in my mind that the returns to Indian farmers will not only double but triple. Challenge is to get professional management and better technology," he said.

However, there are constraints to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act and the Essential Commodities Act which curtail the movements of goods from one place to another, and there are challenge of better marketing in the agricultural cooperative sector, he said.

Amitabh Kant also said the cooperative federations must get the best price for their farmers. Without this, it will be difficult for farmers to double their income, he added.

He also said the online trading platform for agricultural commodities e-National Agriculture Market or eNAM initiative needs to be broad-based on a real-time basis, so that farmers get the information about price variation on a minute-to-minute basis.

He said information is key without which it will be difficult to double the income of farmers.