The Hindu Business Line : Nafed procures over 8 lakh tonne mustardseed

NATIONAL Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) has procured more than 8 lakh tonnes (lt) of mustardseed during the current rabi marketing season.

"At the present pace of procurement, it is likely that a quantity of 18-20 lt may be required to be procured under the price support scheme (PSS)", a Nafed release issued here has said. This would surpass the previous highest level of 4.67 lt procured by the agency during the 2002-03 season.

The record purchases made by Nafed this year comes in the wake of the country harvesting an all-time high rapeseed-mustard crop of 75.89 lt, against 58.32 lt in 2003-04 and 39.18 lt in 2002-03.

"This unprecedented procurement has put tremendous burden on resources of packaging material, finance and warehouse space. While Nafed has tackled the first two problems, space available with the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Rajasthan State Warehousing Corporation (RSWC) is on the verge of exhaustion, especially in Rajasthan", the release added.

The Managing Director of Nafed, Mr Alok Ranjan, said that the agency was taking various measures to manage the procurement operations, including tapping maximum storage space in nearby States and moving mustard-seed to consuming markets such as West Bengal where warehousing space is available with the institutions and locations have been identified..

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