Why Maharashtra's farmers are upbeat about the state's new weekly vegetable markets

Yashwant Kanojia looked curiously at the electronic weighing machine balanced precariously on the edge of a carton heaped with vegetables. The machine displayed not only the weight of the brinjal on the scale, but the exact amount he would have to pay.

“How does this work exactly?” he asked Ashish Bhosale, 27, who was weighing out his vegetables from behind the counter. “You put in the rate and then how does it calculate?”

Another customer who had been watching the exchange piped up: “It’s the same machine as in D-Mart. You just have to pay what it says.”

Kanojia was among the first customers at a new farmers’ weekly market inaugurated on Tuesday in Thane’s Brahmand Colony, just north of Mumbai. This market is among a clutch of others to be opened across the city this week. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis most prominently inaugurated one in the Vidhan Bhavan complex in South Mumbai on Sunday.

The openings come just a month after Maharashtra delisted fruits and vegetables from the state’s Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act in June. Until now, farmers could sell their produce only to a limited number of markets run by the state. Consumers or wholesalers could not buy directly from them: access was via brokers and traders. By delisting fruits and vegetables, Maharashtra has effectively freed farmers from this obligation.

“There was no transparency in the APMC about how vegetable prices were fixed,” said Shriram Gadhave, chairman of both the All India Vegetable Growers Association and also of the Junnar Taluka Farmer Producer Organisation whose members had set up stalls in the Thane ground. “The Mumbai APMC thought of themselves as kings. Now that has been demolished.”

To market, to market

Three trucks packed with crates were parked in one corner of the maidan. Abutting them were two perpendicular rows of makeshift wooden counters weighed down with boxes of fresh vegetables. Intrigued by the bazaar’s advertising banners, residents of nearby building complexes and chawls wandered towards the stalls, asking for prices and gauging the quality of the produce on display.

Seema Chavan, a resident of a building society adjoining the maidan, was taken with the concept.

“Of course everyone wants good vegetables,” she said. “Everyone also wants profits. People were saying dhania outside costs Rs 20 and it is the same here, but they don’t see that at least here farmers are getting money directly. If the rates are good, I will keep coming. And these are just more fresh.”

The previous government had also experimented with farmers’ weekly markets. There are around 20 such thriving in Pune right now, all established as projects under the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board. Even Thane had two, opened in 2012, but both lasted only two or three months. With the present government’s notification, however, farmers anywhere can now set up stalls for marketing.

Cracking the market

The farmers from three different groups associated with the Junnar Taluka Farmer Producer Association were positive about how events would shape up.

“For now, we might run the market at a loss to us, but if there is enough demand, we can even reduce prices in a few months,” explained Ganesh Said, 33, who has the weighty rank of Market Developer for the association.

Mumbai is a tougher market to crack than Pune, Said said. Pune is closer to villages, for one. What with tolls, taxes and the cost of labour, amounting to around Rs 6000 per truck, they will be lucky if they can break even with just three trucks at the Thane market. Only with more trucks and more customers will this become economically viable.

Like Said, Bhosale too is upbeat about the prospects of continuing to be associated with agriculture.

“Youths like us feel that these reforms are good,” Bhosale said. “Most markets in Pune are run by MBAs who think they are earning better than in a nine to five job.”

With time, Bhosale said, they will be able to expand the variety of produce brought to the market and perhaps also reach out to farmer groups in farther parts of the state who might find it difficult to transport their produce all the way to Mumbai.

What is needed most now, according to Said, is to train certain people in sales. The electronic weighing machines, for instance, were a contribution of the association, to help farmers unused to daily sales transactions to cope with the demand of what might eventually become hundreds of customers.

Passersby had their own suggestions.

“You should put up a pandal in case of rain,” one young woman said earnestly to Gadhave, who nodded in agreement. Then she added with a hint of apology, “And maybe you should ask the people behind the counter to keep change with them. They couldn’t give me change for Rs 500.”

Gadhave smiled and asked who the salesperson was. She pointed him out.

“They are farmers, you see,” he explained to her. “They aren’t used to having that much money with them.”