Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act in Uttarakhand and its Impact on Agribusiness

[Lack of adequate marketing facilities in the agricultural sector has remained one of the most talked about bottlenecks in the efforts for wellbeing of the agriculture dependent population in the newly formed state of Uttarakhand. Following the guidelines of the model national Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act of 2003, Uttarakhand also adopted the Act in the year 2011 with a hope that the Act would streamline the marketing possibilities for farmers and the sector would flourish with new investments pouring in through increased private participation. The present article, with an attempt to review the performance of the Act in the state of Uttarakhand, highlights that not only the Act has failed in improving the marketing opportunities for the agricultural sector, it has in reality squeezed the market for the common producers due to inordinate delays in institutionalizing the Act and other factors related to governance of the Act]