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With the market price for groundnut hovering above the minimum support price (MSP), farmers in Gujarat are preferring to sell in the open market than participate in the procurement process.
Evidently, out of the 2,65,558 farmers who have registered online to participate in the MSP procurement process initiated by the State government, only 3,602 farmers had availed of the facility till November 15. Notably, the procurement process will continue for 90 days since the start of the process from November 11.
However, farmer sources revealed that market prices of groundnut have improved in the past fortnight and are quoting in the range of ₹4,800 per quintal to as high as ₹6,080 per quintal at markets in Saurashtra including prominent ones at Rajkot, Jamnagar, Gondal. The arrivals in Gondal market crossed one lakh quintal.
The Centre has fixed the MSP for the oilseed at ₹5,550 per quintal for the season 2021-22.
Kharif crops procurement
Gujarat Agriculture Minister, Raghavji Patel, on Tuesday informed that the procurement of kharif crops including oilseeds is being undertaken in the State under the Centre’s Price Support Scheme (PSS). The Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation is the nodal agency for the procurement process for groundnut, moong, urad and soybean.
“So far today, 2,65,558 farmers have registered to participate in groundnut procurement, 182 farmers for moong, 382 for urad and 321 for soybean,” Patel. He also noted that the market prices of good quality groundnut were ruling higher than the market price in the current market situation.
As per the Central procurement guidelines, each farmer can sell up to 2,500 kg of groundnut on a single day.
Notably, trade bodies have estimated Gujarat’s groundnut crop at 38.55 lakh tonnes for the year 2021-22, up by 8.74 per cent from 35.45 lakh tonnes recorded in the previous year. The average yield per hectare is expected to be sharply higher at 2020 kg per hectare against 1,715 kg last year on better and timely rainfall.
As per the State government’s first advanced estimate, groundnut output for the State is likely to be at 39.94 lakh tonnes for the year 2021-22 as against 39.86 lakh tonnes in the previous year.
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