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Groundnut farmers in Gujarat aren’t out of the woods yet, as the prices of the oilseed further slipped below ₹3,000 in several spot markets to touch ₹2,900 per quintal against the minimum support price of ₹4,500. Considering the record crop size of 32 lakh tonnes and large unsold stocks of groundnut lying with the farmers, the Centre rushed to rescue by announcing additional procurement of 1 lakh tonnes on January 25. However, even after a month of the announcement, the procurement hasn’t resumed owing to storage constraints.
“Most of the warehouses are fully occupied by groundnut. As per rules, we can’t transport groundnut to a distant location, it would also add to the costs. All the nearby warehouses across Saurashtra —the mainland for groundnut are full. However, we are trying to find out a way and get private warehouses. It may take about 15 more days,” said a top office bearer at State-run Gujarat State Warehousing Corporation (GSWC).
The National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), which has procured 8 lakh tonnes through the State nodal agencies such as Gujarat Gujarat Cooperative Oilseeds Growers’ Federation Ltd (Grofed) and Gujarat State Co-operative Marketing Federation (Gujcomasol) and Gujarat State Co-Operative Cotton Federation Limited (GujCot).
However, the storage woes do not seem to get over for the farmers any time soon as several other warehouses are already occupied by the pulses - tur. This makes things worse even for the government to arrange adequate warehouses in the shortage situation.
Meanwhile, the farmers, which who are left with the excess groundnut stocks have directly started approaching the buyers at the APMCs. “I am left with about 600 kg of groundnut, even after selling about 2400 kg at MSP during the procurement. But since a month, we have been waiting for the procurement to resume. Now, we feel it is better to sell the crop in the market to recover whatever is possible,” said Harshad Khapra from Devda village in Rajkot District.
The prices, however, have already declined to a recent low of Rs₹2900 per quintal in few markets. The groundnut sold in the open market will be used for crushing.
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