Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday defended amendments introduced to the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act through an ordinance and said farmers have been given opportunities to sell their commodities anywhere to enable them to get better prices.
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Changes to the Act have not diluted the functioning of APMCs and farmers have every right to sell their produce in the APMC markets or outside. Farmers have been given the freedom of “my crop, my right” and nobody has power to question it. “99% of farmers will welcome changes in the Act”, the Chief Minister told presspersons here.
Mr. Yediyurappa said agricultural marketing has been opened to the private sector more than a decade ago and several MNCs have been involved in trading of commodities. A few years ago, the State had rolled out Unified Markets Platform (UMP) covering all APMCs and online trading was going on.
Changes in the Act would benefit farmers and enable “doubling income”, a vision envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “No injustice to farmers”, said Mr. Yediyurappa.
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The Chief Minister he had spoken to Opposition leaders and representatives of farmers and cleared all their doubts about changes in the Act.