Agricultural marketing is a process that involves the assembling, storage, processing, transportation, packaging, grading and distribution of different agricultural commodities across the country [NCERT definition]

Creation of competitive, stable and unified national market is needed
Currently, Agricultural markets characterized by

inefficient physical operations
excessive crowding of intermediaries
fragmented market chains

Alternate marketing channels

if farmers directly sell their produce to consumers, it increases their incomes.
Ex: Apni Mandi (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan); Rythu Bazars (vegetable and fruit markets in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana)

Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC)

An Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) is a marketing board established by a state government. (only state govt)
APMC operate on two principles:

Ensure that farmers are not exploited by intermediaries (or money lenders) who compel farmers to sell produce at the farm gate for an extremely low price
All food produce should first be brought to a market yard and then sold through auction

First sale of crops by farmers - after harvesting - can only take place in APMC authorized mandis (not at the farm gates) through auctions
Maharashtra and Bihar ended the monopoly of APMC and allowed trade in farm commodities outside mandis

Model APMC Act 2003

States not obligatory to adopt the model act as agriculture marketing is state subject
As per the act, the State is divided into several market areas, each of which is administered by a separate Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) which impose its own marketing regulation (including fees).
Apart from that, legal persons(individuals, companies), growers, and local authorities are permitted to apply for the establishment of new markets for agricultural produce in any area.
Separate provision is made for notification of ‘Special Markets’ in any market area for specified agricultural commodities.
Provision for Contract Farming

Allowing direct sale of farm produce to contract farming sponsor from farmer’s field.
Compulsory registration of all contract farming sponsors (such as companies)

There will be no compulsion on the growers to sell their produce through existing markets administered by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (
Single point levy of market fee on the sale of notified agricultural commodities in any market area.
Provision made for resolving disputes arising between private market/ consumer market and Market.
Provides for the creation of marketing infrastructure from the revenue earned by the APMC.
Provisions to attract private investment in constructing market yards and creating the post-harvest value chain comprising cold stores, warehouses and logistics infrastructure.

The State/UT Agricultural Produce and Livestocks Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Act 2017

Model APMC act
single-point levy of market fee across a State and a united single trading license for cost-effectiveness of transactions

Before: Single point levy only for notified agri commodities but not for all agri commodities

promotion of national market for agriculture produce through provisioning of inter-State trading license
Grading, standardization and quality certification
Rationalisation of market fee and commission charges,
provision for special commodity market yard and
promotion of e-trading to increase transparency.
An authorized officer may grant a license to a person to establish a private market yard, for trading of notified agricultural produce and livestock

Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020

GOI under the entry 33 of the concurrent list which deals with trade and commerce of agricultural produce, including “foodstuffs”, “cattle fodd nd “r cotton” enacted this ordinanceFeatures

Allows trade of agricultural produce(includes, milk, eggs, fish etc) outside APMC’s.

Trade can be done at any place of production, collection, and aggregation of farmers produce.
Before: Only contract farming is allowed outside APMC. Now, any produce

Any buyer of produce may engage in inter-state and intra state trade.
Electronic trading is allowed through online platforms

GOI will prescribe standards of operation for such portals in regards to quality, conduct, and payments

State governments cannot levy market fee, cess or levy on farmers, traders and electronic trading platforms for any trade
A dispute resolution mechanism with conciliation and settlement procedures.

National Agriculture Market NAM

pan-India electronic trading portal which seeks to connect existing APMCs and other market yards to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities
NAM is a “virtual market but it has a physical market (mandi) at the back end – Integrat digitalization of markets across India
NAM creates a unified market through online trading platform both, at State and National level and promotes uniformity.
The NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services.
While the material flow of agriculture produce continues to happen through mandis, an online market reduces transaction costs and information asymmetry.
Conditions for State to be part of NAM

A single license to be valid across the state.
Single point levy of market fee.
Provision for electronic auction as a mode of price discovery.

Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium is the lead agency to implement it
Fund Allocation – is being funded through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (AITF)

Features

Union Govt provide the software free of cost to the states and a grant of up to Rs. 30 lakhs per mandi or market or private mandis will be given for related equipment and infrastructure requirements
Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWRs) module is also integrated which will enable small & marginal famers to directly trade their stored produce from selected Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) registered warehouses
Logistic Module integrated - linking large logistic aggregator platforms with eNAM which will provide flexibility to user for seamless transportation

Benefits

Facilitates pan - India trade in agricultural commodities
Better marketing opportunities for farmers through online access to buyers
Real time price discovery based on actual demand and supply of Agri commodities
transparency in auction process
Online payment
Promote stable prices and availability of quality produce to consumers

Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs)

Budget 2018-19 Announcement
Develop and upgrade existing 22,000 rural haats into Gramin Agricultural Markets. For this, Agri–Market Infrast ucture Fund was setup with a corpus of 2000 crore
They will also be electronically linked to e-NAM and exempted from APMC regulations

They will provide farmers facility to make direct sale to consumers and bulk purchasers.

Upgrading rural markets to GrAMs was recommended by Ashok Dalwai Committee report on doubling farmers income

Rural Haats

Ownership

These are owned by Local Bodies (Panchayats/councils), Agricultural/ Horticultural Departments of State Governments, Cooperatives, Marketing Boards/APMCs and Private Sector

The rural markets which are multi commodity in nature are first contact point of market where farmer – producers sell their surplus to local consumers.
In some markets, livestock, non-farm products for daily needs are also sold
In Rural Markets, trade is characterized by direct sales of small quantities of produce by producers to village traders and by retail sales to rural consumers.

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd NAFED

Registered under the Multi State Co-operative Societies Act 2002
Under Min of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare
Objective is to promote Co-operative marketing of Agricultural Produce to benefit the farmers
The objectives of the NAFED shall be

It was founded to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation
to organize, promote and develop marketing, processing and storage of agricultural, horticultural and forest produce,
distribution of agricultural machinery, implements and other inputs,
undertake inter-state, import and export trade, wholesale or retail as the case may be and
to act and assist for technical advice in agricultural production for the promotion and the working of its members, partners, associates and cooperative marketing, processing and supply societies in India

NAFED is the Central Nodal agency of Government of India for procurement of Pulses & Oilseeds, Copra and Cotton
It is the nodal agency to implement price stabilization measures under "Operation Greens

NAFED wasted over half of its onion buffer stock due to poor storage, at a time when government is importing tonnes of onion to keep prices at check.