For the current Kharif season, the Gujarat government has begun purchasing groundnuts at Minimum Support Price (MSP) levels. Farmers will be relieved to hear this, given recent reports of private agents purchasing crops for less than MSP.
“The State government has made the arrangements to make the instant payment to the farmers who sell their grain at the MSP,” Gujarat Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel told reporters. This will make the process more transparent and credible.”
The purchase will take undertaken at 155 procurement centers across the state. All registered farmers will be entitled to sell up to 25 quintals of produce at the MSP. The Centre has set the MSP for oilseed at Rs 5,550 per quintal for the 2021-22 season. The current groundnut market price in Saurashtra was between 4,855 and 5,500 rupees per quintal.
Patel initiated the State-wide procurement push from Jamnagar district on Tuesday. This year trade organizations have predicted Gujarat’s groundnut crop to increase by 8.74 percent to 38.55 lakh tonnes, from 35.45 lakh tonnes which was the amount produced last year.
With more consistent and timely rainfall, the average yield per hectare is expected to rise to 2,020 kg/ha, up from 1,715 kg last year. Groundnut output in the State is predicted to reach 39.94 lakh tonnes in 2021-22, up from 39.86 lakh tonnes the previous year, according to the State government’s first advanced estimate.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term MSP (Minimum Support Price), it is a sort of market intervention utilized by the Indian government to protect agricultural producers against a sharp reduction in farm prices.
So, when private agents in some states are actually buying produce at a lower price than the MSP this year. The government’s purchase effort is unquestionably a silver lining among the clouds for farmers.