By Qudsia Bano ISLAMABAD, March 10 (INP-WealthPK): New model agricultural marketplaces are being set up to enable farmers to sell their produce directly to consumers at relatively affordable rates. Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi, Punjab Minister for Agriculture, said the provincial government has established the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (PAMRA) to improve the conditions of agriculture markets in line with the vision of the prime minister. “Under the PAMRA Act, scores of marketplaces have been registered,” the minister said, adding these markets have been integrated through information technology system. “Standard operating procedures have been put in place to ensure cleanliness and proper plantation at these model markets. Market fees, commissions and daily rates are all displayed at prominent locations,” the minister maintained, saying the previously closed markets are also being reopened across the province to increase the number of marketplaces. Meanwhile, Waseem Iqbal, an assistant director of Agriculture Marketing Information System (AMIS), told WealthPK that the provincial government is taking steps to open agricultural markets in the country to facilitate farmers and traders. “Agriculture marketing is being liberalised through legislation.” The official said the process was started in March 2021, and 60 private and 238 public markets have already been registered. He said the initiative has been started by the prime minister to increase the agriculture sector’s output. He added that there is no registration fee for such markets, no revenue sharing, and no tax involvement, and farmers only have to share the daily data with the government. Waseem Iqbal said that they are also working on virtual markets, where bulk purchases will be available to everyone in need. “Virtual markets will be based on online agriculture and B2B business.” According to the AMIS assistant director, “The Punjab government has begun reforms under the PAMRA Act in order to better control agricultural commodity prices and modernise the agricultural market system. The government has also decided to encourage the private sector to set up markets in accordance with the new rules.” According to the official, the new system will help abolish the monopoly of intermediaries and commission agents with the improvement of the market committee system. “A technically efficient agricultural market is one where the various agricultural markets in the region are well-integrated. And an economically efficient agricultural marketing system is one where competition throughout the marketing chain results in total marketing costs of agricultural products being minimised and profits earned by each player in the marketing chain being no more than normal.” Waseem Iqbal said in order to boost the country’s economy through agricultural development, graduate and postgraduate programmes in agribusiness management will be offered by the government at prestigious universities. “Curriculum will be constructed in such a way that it will aid agricultural graduates in gaining the necessary skills to compete in the domestic and global business arenas, allowing them to become effective agri-business managers.” According to the AMIS assistant director, the government will offer trained personnel or seed money for such programmes. “Training will also be provided expressly for post-harvest handling of perishable commodities, notably in terms of storage and packaging. Furthermore, training will also be provided to promote the use of best practices in agricultural marketing.”