Even as government procurement of groundnut for the current 2018-19 kharif marketing season is about to end, the oilseed continues to sell in various APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandis of Gujarat at way below the official minimum support price (MSP). This, despite a much lower crop output due to drought in the country’s largest groundnut producing state.
As of February 5, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) procured 4.04 lakh tonnes (LT) or 40.37 lakh quintals of groundnut worth Rs 2,021.33 crore from 2,00,357 farmers in Gujarat. The nodal procurement agency is paying an effective MSP of Rs 5,000 per quintal for groundnuts-in-shell, which includes the Centre’s Rs 4,890 rate and a Rs 110 bonus declared by the state government.
Manish Bhardwaj, the managing director of the government-run Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation that buys from farmers on Nafed’s behalf, said one more week is left for procurement. “Around 38,000 farmers are waiting for their turn to sell. We expect the total procurement to end up at around 4.5 LT,” he says.