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"Only 1,270 tonne of Chana has arrived till last Friday at various procurement centers across Madhya Pradesh," a senior officer in MP Marketing Cooperative Federation Limited said. The state had expected arrival of 2 million tonne.
Though Chana prices for desi variety was hovering around Rs 2,010-2,900 per quintal and Rs 2,300-5,200 per quintal for chana Gulabi in local mandi, farmers are still shying away from procurement centres.
Unseasonal rains during January to March destroyed significant amount of chana crop, yet state government has expected arrival of 2 million tonne at various procurement centres.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had raised the issue of damage to chana crop ahead of polls in March and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee.
He had also written to the President and demanded funds for Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited) the main procurement agency, so that it can procure Chana at minimum support price of Rs 3,100 per quintal.
"Farmers are holding the commodity in anticipation of higher prices during May-June as there is a shortage of crop due to bad weather this year," a senior official in state farmers welfare and agriculture development department said.
"Procurement centers rejects the commodity if it has 14% or more moisture why will farmers go at government procurement centres when they can fetch more price in market," said the official.
Also, farmers do not want to run the risk of transporting the commodity to procurement centre and face tough norms of procurement.
Nafed and MP Markfed stood at loggerheads for months over the issue wherein the chief minister kept on alleging Central government for its bias towards Madhya Pradesh farmers. Later when top authorities at centre intervened Nafed and MP Markfed reached an agreement and initiated procurement process since April 1 this year.
The procurement norms of Nafed are stern in terms of fair average quality. And farmers cannot ensure it -- no moisture, no foreign material and the commodity in proper shape and size.
