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As planned, the Gujarat government on Friday started off groundnut procurement, but at a slower pace as farmers were unable to bring their crop due to recent unseasonal rain.
As per the government data, over 44 talukas of 18 districts in the State received unseasonal rain in the past few days. This unexpected spell damaged harvested and about-to-be harvested crops, including groundnut, thereby further delaying arrivals at procurement centres.
“Procurement has begun in some places. But in places where there was unseasonal rain, farmers were unable to bring the groundnut to the procurement centres because most of the crop is either rain-damaged or still lying in water-logged fields,” said Rajeshbhai Buha, a groundnut farmer from Junagadh.
The State government claimed that the procurement process has begun and that farmers in the rain-affected talukas will be given another opportunity to bring their crop to the procurement centres when the rains recede.
But farmers’ body, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), has written to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani seeking relaxation in the norms for farmers' registration to participate in the procurement, as well as in quality parameters for the MSP process.
“Currently, the farmers are facing tough times like never seen in recent history due to climatic adversity. In this scenario harvest is taking longer than expected. Therefore, there is a need to check with farmers when they can bring their crop and accordingly consider it for procurement,” a letter signed by BKS’ Gujarat Region president Vitthal Dudhatara said.
He also stated that the government needs to relax quality parameters for procurement as much of the groundnut crop will have the moisture problem.
The government, on the other hand, has assured farmers that even if they fail to bring their crop during their designated time, they will be given another opportunity at a later stage to participate in the procurement process.
Damage-assessment activity has already started while the State government has conducted meetings with the officials of crop insurance companies amid wide-spread complaints from farmers on difficulty in registering crop damage on the toll-free numbers and online platforms.
Meanwhile, the IMD has predicted more rain and stormy weather for Gujarat. Jayant Sarkar, Director, IMD-Ahmedabad, said that there is a likelihood of ‘Maha’ cyclone re-curving towards Gujarat by November 6-7.
“There will be heavy rainfall along the Saurashtra coast and in southern Gujarat. As the Maha cyclone is likely to re-curve from its trajectory towards North-East, it may come towards Gujarat coast.”
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