Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardAgriculture Sector Economics, Land Reforms, Subsidies, and Public Distribution System

Match the agricultural marketing, procurement, and financial institutions in List-I with their primary objective or statutory mandate in List-II:

  • Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)Formulates price policy recommendations including Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) based on comprehensive cost structure estimates.
  • National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED)Functions as the central nodal procurement agency for oilseeds, pulses, and copra under the Price Support Scheme (PSS).
  • Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC)Acts as the single lead agency for implementing and operating the pan-India Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal.
  • Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA)Regulates and promotes the negotiable warehouse receipt (NWR) system to enable post-harvest institutional finance for farmers.

Answer

The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) formulates MSP and FRP recommendations based on cost structures. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) acts as the central procurement agency for oilseeds, pulses, and copra under the Price Support Scheme. The Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead agency implementing e-NAM. The Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) regulates the negotiable warehouse receipt system.
Each institution matches its precise statutory or policy mandate: CACP advises on price policy formulation (MSP/FRP); NAFED executes price support operations for pulses and oilseeds; SFAC manages the digital agricultural marketing infrastructure (e-NAM); and WDRA regulates the negotiable warehouse receipt mechanism to improve post-harvest credit flow.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the core mandate of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
CACP is an advisory body that calculates farm production costs (A2, A2+FL, C2) and recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops as well as FRP for sugarcane.
Distinguishing recommendatory bodies from operational procurement agencies is essential for assessing agricultural price support architecture.
2
Analyze the operational role of NAFED in agricultural commodity markets.
NAFED executes price support procurement operations specifically for non-foodgrain commercial crops like pulses and oilseeds.
While the Food Corporation of India (FCI) handles wheat and paddy procurement, NAFED handles pulse and oilseed market intervention.
3
Identify the institutional manager of the e-NAM platform.
SFAC is mandated to deploy software, onboard APMCs, and manage trading operations on e-NAM.
SFAC acts as the specialized financial and managerial agency promoting agribusiness integration.
4
Determine the regulatory authority overseeing post-harvest warehousing credit.
WDRA implements the statutory provisions of the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2007 for negotiable warehouse receipts.
NWRs enable farmers to pledge stored produce to commercial banks for liquidity, mitigating distress sales.

Key Concept

Institutional Architecture of Agricultural Pricing, Procurement, and Market Infrastructure in India
Rate this question

Topics

Agriculture Sector Economics, Land Reforms, Subsidies, and Public Distribution System