Jaipur: Rajasthan State Co-Operative Marketing Federation (RajFed) is way behind its target of procuring mustard this year.
According to data presented, of the 10,46,500 tonnes target, the department was able to procure only 3,34,497 tonnes of mustard.
Whereas for chana, the target set by the department is almost completed. According to data, 6,15,750 tonnes was the target and till June 30 they have been able to procure 5,99,343 tonnes have been procured.
“The reason for low procurement was higher price of mustard in the market than the MSP set by the government. This year surprisingly mustard was sold at a higher price in the market so farmers did not come forward to register. This year due to pandemic, low imports of palm oil has given a hike to mustard oil sale and rates shot up,” said a senior official of RajFed.
Many farmers in the state did not agree with this reason. Harish Chandra Kasaniya, a mustard farmer from Sri Ganganagar, said that the department set very low MSP than the market price.
“The rate of market was low in the beginning than the government’s MSP. However, due to coronavirus and lockdown not many farmers were able to reach the procurement centre on time and register. Hence, to save losses and to purchase seeds/fertilizers for the next season, farmers sold the produce in the market to the businessmen at lower rates. Moreover, the government also kept the rate pretty low this year compared to last year. Now, the rates have again shot up in the market, but there is not much produce left as most of it has been sold,” Kasaniya said.
According to officials, procurement of chana and mustard will continue till July 29, except Kota zone, as procurement started early there. However, if the farmers continue this trend of not selling to the government, then the entire plan will be wrapped up soon.
Ghanshyam Singh, a mustard farmer from Bharatpur, said the government will anyways wrap up the entire procurement process due to arrival of monsoon.
