Agricultural Economics Research Review
Year : 2021, Volume : 34, Issue : conf
First page : ( 228) Last page : ( 228)
Print ISSN : 0971-3441. Online ISSN : 0974-0279.

Prospective impact of new farm policy paradigm on agricultural marketing infrastructure in Punjab

Sekhon M K*, Singh Sukhpal, Kaur Amarpreet

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004

*Corresponding author: sekhon@pau.edu

Online Published on 16 March, 2022.

Abstract

The Punjab Mandi Board has been playing a significant role in revolutionizing the rural economy in many ways. Presently, it has established 154 regulated markets, 277 sub yards and 4006 purchasing centres in the state. The Board in collaboration with other departments has linked every single village with the metallic link roads. Consequently, the marketing of farm produce has become orderly and efficient, particularly at the assembling point. The manifold increase in agricultural production might not have been achieved without the successful development of an efficient marketing system. All these interventions pave the way for smooth procurement of food grains to maintain buffer stock and for public distribution system in which the share of Punjab to the central pool is 37.8 per cent in the case of wheat and 21.5 per cent in case of rice in the year of 2019–20 for which the state is considered to be the ‘Food Bowl’ of the country. Besides this, there is an unabridged lot of infrastructure developed by the Board in the state. The present study apart from highlighting the infrastructural development made by the Board throws light on the likely adverse effects of the dissolution of the APMC act wherein the farmers may be left at the mercy of private companies after the end of the regulated market system. Resultantly, the income of Board and state revenue would drastically decline which would adversely affect the funding of various developmental works, market infrastructure and road network systems in the state.

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