AGRICULTURE MINISTER Raghavji Patel launched the operations of the Central government to procure gram (chana) at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,230 per quintal from Rajkot Tuesday. However, even as the procurement began in 69 centres across the state, the turnout of farmers was low on the inaugural day.
At a function organised at a procurement centre in the old yard of the agricultural produce market committee (APMC) in Rajkot, Patel launched the procurement drive under the Centre’s price support scheme (PSS). Simultaneously, Parshottam Rupala, the Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, also inaugurated the gram procurement drive at Dhari in Amreli district in the presence of Dileep Sanghani, chairman of Gujarat State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited (Gujcomasol), the state’s top cooperative marketing body.
“To open the doors of prosperity to farmers by doubling farmers’ income is a firm resolve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Farmers’ cooperation is imperative in leading the country on the road to prosperity,” the minister said.
As many as 3.28 lakh farmers have registered themselves for selling their gram to the Centre at MSP in the Kharif marketing season of 2022-23. The Centre is making the procurements through the Delhi-headquartered National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of Indian Limited (Nafed), the apex cooperative marketing body of the country. Nafed, in turn, has Gujcomasol – a federation of cooperative societies and cooperative sale and purchase unions of farmers – as the state-level agency (SLA) for running PSS gram procurement operations in Gujarat.
Sanghani said there was a low turnout of farmers on the first day as the crops are not ready yet. “Some are still in the midst of harvest and therefore, unable to cart their gram to procurement centre. Therefore, we have written to the government to run procurement operations for four months instead of the routine three months,” said Sanghani.
“Nafed has approved a total of 187 gram procurement centres across the state. On the inaugural day, 69 centres became operational as farmers turned up with their produce. At others, no farmer came with his/her harvest. But as the word will spread that procurement has begun, farmers will start carting their gram to procurement centres and we will operationalise other centres in a phased manner,” Patel later told The Indian Express.
Incidentally, the Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (GSCSCL) has been running procurement operations for most commodities since 2019 after five godowns where PSS groundnut was stored caught fire in 2018. The Congress had then alleged there was corruption in procurement and that the godowns were set afire to destroy evidence.
However, this year, Nafed has chosen Gujcomasol as SLA for the state this year. “GSCSCL expressed its inability to run the gram procurement operations citing staff shortage. Therefore, Nafed has chosen Gujcomasol for the task this year,” said Patel, adding the procurement operations will be on till May-end.
Gujcomasol had also ran the gram procurement operations on behalf of Nafed after GSCSCL backed out in 2020 due to Covid-19 threat.
Gram acreage in the Rabi season of the current financial year touched an all-time high in Gujarat at 11.32 lakh hectare (lh), a 25 per cent rise compared to 8.16 lh recorded in the corresponding season of 2020-21. It is around 67 per cent higher compared to 4.66 lakh average gram acreage recorded over the previous three seasons.
The highest acreage has been reported from Saurashtra, the agrarian region where MSP procurement is a politically-sensitive issue, especially in an election year. The Second Advance Estimates released by the state government last month pegged gram procurement at 24.90 lakh tonnes (lt), almost a million tonnes more than 14.37 lt recorded in 2020-21.
Under PSS, the Central government intervenes in open market and makes physical procurement of crops if prices slip below the MSP. The Centre generally procures 25 per cent of the total crop size in a state directly from farmers so that they get remunerative prices in case rates remain low in the open market.
Patel said the Central government has already sanctioned procurement of 4.65 lt gram from Gujarat. “Our estimates are that the final crop size will be higher than 24.90 lt and therefore, we have requested the Central government to increase Gujarat’s PSS procurement quota to 6.25 lt,” said the minister, adding, “Gram prices have already appreciated by around Rs 250 per quintal in the open market over the last two days.” He expressed hope that it will increase further as the government starts procurement on a large scale.
On Tuesday, gram prices in Rajkot APMC remained in the range of Rs 4,400 to Rs 4,530.
