Climatic adversities that hampered the transportation of groundnut from the eastern part of the country to the western region has temporarily disrupted procurement in Gujarat.

Farmers maintained that the non-availability of woven jute sacks brought procurement activity to a temporary halt at several centers in Saurashtra.

Storage space Adding to the woes of was the shortage of storage space. According to farmer leaders, due to the heavy arrivals of groundnut, there is a requirement for large storage spaces.

“Some centers in the districts of Rajkot, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Porbandar have stopped procurement activity due to the non-availability of woven jute sacks for over a week. Huge groundnut arrivals continued at the markets, but the procurement is temporarily suspended. Adding to the woes is the non-availability of the storage space in the warehouses,” said Maganbhai Jhalavadiya from Padadhari Taluka Cooperative Union in Rajkot district.

Temporary issue However, the agencies responsible for groundnut procurement in the State, maintained that the delay in procurement is only a temporary phenomenon, which will be sorted out once the transportation issue is resolved.

“The jute sacks come from Kolkata via road route. The trucks that usually take about a week to reach Gujarat are taking longer due to dense fog in the eastern parts. The disruption in transportation has caused some temporary delay in procurement at few centers,” an official at one of the four procurement agencies told BusinessLine .

The State government has assigned four agencies, including Gujarat State Co-Operative Cotton Federation Limited (GujCot), which has a 60 per cent share in the overall procurement in the State, followed by Gujarat State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd (Gujcomasol), Banas Dairy, Sabar Dairy and Gujpro Agribusiness Consortium Producer Company Limited (GujPro).

So far the State has procured 678,646 tonnes of groundnut worth more than ₹3,019 crore till January 4. The largest agency for groundnut procurement, GujCot, procured nearly 4.3 lakh tonnes valued at nearly ₹1,900 crore.

Launched since the last week of October 2017, groundnut procurement was conducted across 260 procurement centers across the State by four agencies.

Last week, the Deputy Chief Minister, Nitin Patel, had informed that in the interest of the numerous farmers, the State-appointed agencies started procurement for groundnut at MSP rates after the market prices of the oilseed crashed to around ₹3,250-3,500 per quintal against the minimum support price of ₹4,500 per quintal (or ₹900 per 20kg).

Groundnut production in the State is estimated at about 32 lakh tonnes, which was around 29 lakh tonnes last year. Last year about 2.1 lakh tonnes of groundnut were procured by the agencies.

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