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State to procure groundnut at Rs 900/20kg against market price of Rs 650
The Gujarat government on Sunday announced procurement of groundnut at a rate of Rs 900 per 20 kg as against the prevailing market price of Rs 600-650 per 20kg, as a bid to woo farmers ahead of the state assembly polls later this year.
The procurement will take place through centers by Nafed, Gujarat Cooperative Oilseeds Growers' Federation Ltd (Grofed) and Gujcomasol centers.
At a hurriedly convened press meet on Sunday, the Chief Minister Vijay Rupani made the announcement stating that the move will benefit farmers at a time, when the state is likely to have robust kharif groundnut crop. The procurement will begin from October 25, also marked as labh panchami (the auspicious fifth day after Diwali). The move is likely to put additional burden of Rs 500 crore.
"The state has witnessed 100 per cent rainfall this year. As a result, there was robust sowing of kharif crops such as groundnut, urad, tur and cotton. In the situation of higher crop, farmers don't have to incur loss due to lower prices. The state government has decided to procure groundnut at Rs 900 per 20 kg from 106 centers after Diwali," said Rupani. The registration of farmers will happen online and farmers will be informed through an SMS to avoid middle-men involvement.
Notably, the announcement came right ahead of the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's three-day visit to Gujarat starting from Monday. Interestingly, Gandhi is scheduled to tour four districts of Saurashtra region - considered as the groundnut heartland.
The arrivals of kharif groundnut will only start around Diwali. The State has registered groundnut sowing on about 16.15 lakh hectares, which is about 16 per cent higher than the normal sowing of 13.87 lakh hectares.
The Chief Minister also informed that this year, groundnut output is expected to touch 32 lakh tonnes. For the year 2016-17, the state had procured 2.1 lakh tonnes of groundnut worth Rs 889.29 crore thereby giving additional price benefit of Rs 175.24 to the groundnut farmers.
Rupani added that State government will also procure other crops such as tur, urad and cotton in the event of higher production. Tur production is estimated at 3.21 lakh tonnes, moong (green gram) and urad (black gram) output is expected to be 64,000 tonnes and 83,000 tonnes respectively. While cotton production is estimated to be 73.60 lakh bales (each of 170 kg).
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