Govt reopens window for farmers to sell mustard at MSP post dip in prices

In all, 22,429 farmers have got themselves registered so far for selling their mustard to the government. Among them, Gujcomasol had sent SMS alerts to 12,832 farmers as of May 8 to bring their mustard to procurement centres. Of these 12,832 farmers, 8,629 responded to alerts and took their mustard to procurement centres opened by Gujcomasol.

According to the data, among the 8,629 who turned up with their harvest, 2.46 lakh quintal of mustard brought by 8,571 farmers was procured by the government while the mustard belonging to 58 farmers was rejected for not meeting fair average quality (FAQ) norms.

“The response to the government procurement operations has been very good in north Gujarat. We have already covered around 58 per cent of farmers who had registered themselves for selling their mustard. We will cover the remaining 9,606 farmers by June 7, the day the 90-day procurement window closes,” Dinesh Suthar, chief executive of Gujcomasol, said.

Mustard is an important oilseed crop of India with Gujarat being a significant producer. The state had recorded mustard sowing in 3.05 lakh hectare (lh), which was around 26 per cent higher than the previous three year’s average 2.42 lh. The state government’s Third Advance Estimate pegs the production to 6.07 lakh tonne (lt) or 60.7 lakh quintal.

While the Union government has fixed Rs 5,450 per quintal as the MSP for mustard for Rabi 2022-23 season, price of this oil seed in the open market has been hovering around Rs 5,000. Given that government’s intervention has not lifted prices of mustard in the open market, the state has decided to reopen the registration window again to cover more farmers.

“Despite government intervention, prices of mustard and gram haven’t lifted in the open market. This is quite unusual. The Central government, however, has allotted Gujarat 1.5 lt (15 lakh quintal) of mustard procurement quota. On the one hand, we are underutilising the quota and on the other, prices of mustard are low in the open market. Therefore, the state decided around a month ago to reopen registration window and allow farmers spot registration,” Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel told The Indian Express.

The Union government has appointed Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation Limited) for procuring mustard and gram (chana) in Gujarat. In turn, Nafed has appointed Gujcomasol, the apex cooperative marketing body of the state, as the state-level agency to open and run procurement centres across Gujarat.

Suthar said that a number of procurement centres have already started registering farmers on the spot while some are likely to extend this facility once they cover the farmers who had got themselves registered between February 1 and 28. “We will do spot registration of farmers till May 15 and procure their mustard by June 7,” Suthar said.

The 2.46 lakh quintal of mustard procured by the Union government is worth Rs 134.45 crore and the government has already paid Rs 58.88 crore to 4,500 farmers, data shows.

As per Gujcomasol, 2.20 lakh farmers had registered to sell their gram to the government. As of May 8, Gujcomasol had sent SMS alerts to 2.06 lakh farmers and procured 2.96 lakh quintal of chana from 1.52 lakh farmers. Gujarat had recorded sowing of gram in 7.65 lh and government estimates production to remain around 13.91 lt in the state.