Niti Aayog launches index on agriculture marketing reforms

The Dollar Business Bureau

In order to rank states and union territories on their performance in implementing agricultural marketing reforms, Niti Aayog has launched the “Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index.”

“NITI Aayog has launched an index named “Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index” to rank States and UTs that is based on implementation of seven provisions proposed under model APMC Act,” said an official release on Monday.

The state of Maharashtra has got first rank in implementing various reforms on the Index, followed by Gujarat and Rajasthan.

This is the first-ever index on the agriculture sector reforms issued by Niti Aayog.
It ranked states on three key parameters including agricultural marketing reforms, land lease reforms and forestry on private land related reforms. The index has a minimum score of ‘zero’, which implies no reforms and a maximum score of ‘100’ which means complete reforms in selected areas.

Maharashtra received a score of 81.7, followed by Gujarat at 71.5, and Rajasthan at 70.0. Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi and Puducherry are at bottom of the table with scores of 7.4 and 7.3 and 4.8, respectively.

Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu performed poorly, even not reaching the median score of 50.

Madhya Pradesh was on the fourth position with score of 69.5, followed by Haryana (63.3), Himachal Pradesh (59.5), Andhra Pradesh (56.2), Karnataka (55.5), Telangana (54.3), and Goa (52.8).

Bihar, Manipur, Kerala, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli are not included in the list as either they did not adopt the APMC Act or revoked it.

The aim of the index is to help the states in identifying and addressing the problems in the agriculture sector, which suffers from low levels of productivity, growth, and incomes.