Nitin Jain
Ludhiana, August 13
Ludhiana district’s Jagraon grain market excelled with over 55 per cent of the total 46,334 metric tonne (MT) of moong purchased in the state as the first-ever procurement of one of the main pulses grown during the Kharif season, by the state government concluded in the state, the government has confirmed.
To accommodate the few farmers left out with their produce, the state government had extended the moong procurement from July 31 to August 10.
Of the total around 46,333.58 MT of procurement across the state, 25,646.5 MT moong, which accounted for 55.35 per cent, was purchased in Jagraon mandi alone, the official figures have revealed.
Jagraon procured only 8.49 per cent of the total purchase made by the state government across the state while a whopping 61.72 per cent of the total private procurement was recorded here.
Sharing details, the Markfed Managing Director (MD), Ramvir, who monitored the moong procurement by the government across the state, told The Tribune, here on Saturday, that Markfed, which was the nodal agency for the government purchase of moong in the state, purchased 5,537.45 MT of pulse, which included 2,559.2 MT under the price support scheme (PSS) and 2,978.25 MT under the state pool, while the private agencies procured 40,796.13 MT of moong across 23 districts in Punjab.
While Markfed benefitted 3,396 farmers from 603 villages across the state by procuring their moong at the minimum support price of Rs 7,275 per quintal, another 17,126 peasants sold their produce to the private agencies at the MSP or even higher price.
The Markfed MD said 4,763.3 MT, which accounted for 86.02 per cent, of moong procured by the state government has already been lifted from the mandis while the remaining less than 14 per cent of the purchased stock, which weighed 774.15 MT, was in the process of being lifted.
He said 46,344.08 MT of moong had arrived at the grain markets across 23 districts in the state, of which 46,333.58 MT was purchased almost the same day of arrival, while only 10.5 MT of the arrived stock was left unsold in the mandis, which will also being lifted by the private agencies.
In Ludhiana, which led the state in the moong procurement, a total of 25,646.5 MT of moong was purchased at Jagraon mandi, which included 467.85 MT by Markfed and 25,178.65 MT by the private agencies.
BLANK DISTRICTS
Six districts — Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Pathankot – drew a blank with nil moong purchase.
‘Procured every grain’
The procurement of moong concluded in the state on August 10. We have procured each and every grain of the pulse arrived in the markets. Swift lifting of the purchased stock was done to facilitate the farmers visiting the mandis. — Ramvir, Managing Director, MARKFED
