UP govt to buy coarse grains, brings maize under institutional procurement

Since coarse grains require less water, UP has been encouraging farmers to cultivate prominent coarse cereals like maize, jowar, bajra and jau

To realise its plan to promote them, along with major cash crops such as paddy, wheat and sugarcane, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to procure coarse grains as well from the state's farmers. 

The government will procure 100,000 tonnes of maize through institutional channels between November 15, 2018, and January 15, 2019. This kharif season, the area under maize cultivation was pegged at 675,000 hectares in UP, while the government plans to set up 100 procurement centres for the crop. For 2018-19, the minimum support price (MSP) of maize was fixed at Rs 1,700 per quintal, compared to Rs 1,425 per quintal last year, an increase of Rs 275 per quintal. 

Later, the procured maize would be disbursed to beneficiaries under the public distribution system (PDS), according to the state food and civil supplies department.

Earlier, UP Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi had told Business Standard the state was planning to bring more crops, including coarse grains, pulses and horticultural crops, under the institutional procurement system for further remunerating the farmers and achieving the goal of doubling rural income.

Since coarse grains require less water, while their farm input costs are economical compared to wheat and paddy, UP has been encouraging farmers to cultivate prominent coarse cereals like maize, jowar, bajra (millets) and jau (barley). 

In UP, the area under these four coarse cereals stood at almost 2 million hectares (MH), or 9.75 per cent of the total 20.5 MH of cultivated area in the state. Production wise, the output of maize, jowar, millets and barley during 2016-17 was pegged at 4.7 million tonnes (mt), or a little under nine per cent of the total food grain production of 55.7 mt.  

Coarse cereals were once extensively grown in UP. However, following the Green Revolution, paddy and wheat became the chief cash crops, relegating these indigenous crops to the background. 

"Coarse cereals are rich in nutrition and need less water to grow, which ultimately proves economical for farmers. Besides, these cereals are in high demand by the food processing industry for the production of healthy snacks, such as cornflakes. However, the farmers do not grow these cereals to benefit from the market forces," Shahi had said.

Besides, the Adityanath government had announced a 50 per cent subsidy on high-yielding seeds of barley, maize, jowar and millets, while drawing the roadmap to double the distribution of such seeds from 5,500 tonnes to 11,100 tonnes. 

Falling groundwater levels and depleting surface water has prompted the state to take a multipronged approach to preserve water through crop diversification. 

The Narendra Modi government has also been promoting millets and declared 2018 as the 'National Year of Millets'. During 2017, the cultivation of coarse cereals in India was estimated at 25 MH, an increase of about 0.7 MH over the previous year.