Impact assesment analysis on commodity prices post UMP implementation

Abstract

Even after so many reforms in the field of agriculture, farmers and overall system still face many challenges. The first sale for the farmers occurring in the primary market has limited infrastructure, limited competition with the monopoly of the traders, high transaction cost and many other unethical practices. As a result, inefficient market discourages farming as a whole. To provide transparency in the system and efficient price discovery mechanism, the Rashtriya E-Market Services Private Limited (ReMS) was established as a joint venture between the Government of Karnataka and NCDEX E-Market Limited. ReMS set up an electronic auction platform called Unified Market Platform to bring ‘One State-One Market’ concept into reality. A unified trading license allows buyers outside and within state to bid for the crops brought in nay market. Thus, increased competition for the same lot of crops enables farmers to get the best price for their produce. The motive behind this was to benefit the farmers to the fullest with the technological approach and bringing transparency and efficiency to the post-production operations.