Govt procures less than 1% of target as MIS for garlic ends
NO BENEFIT Against target of 1.54 lakh tonnes, govt buys 1482 tonnes, farmers say extend scheme KOTA:
The Rajasthan government could procure only 1,482 metric tonne garlic through market intervention scheme (MIS) till Saturday, the last day for buying the crop at fair price.
This is not even one per cent of the target that the state government had set after the Union agriculture ministry approved its request to purchase garlic at fair price. The MIS was launched on April 26 and government had announced to procure 1.54 lakh metric tonne garlic. As per official figures, the 10 purchase centres put up by the Rajasthan State Agricultural Marketing Federation (RAJFED) procured 14827.50 quintals of garlic at ₹3,257 per quintal or ₹32.57 per kg.
While the procurement has been abysmal, even the target was “a questionable low”, farmers’ outfits have alleged pointing to the increase in area under the crop.
The net area under garlic in Rajasthan has increased from 69,000 hectare to 1.32 lakh hectare and the production has also doubled from 3.77 lakh MT to 7.7 lakh MT this year.
The farmers and farmer organizations in the Hadauti region are now demanding that government must extend the dates for garlic procurement. Centre had approved the MIS request on April 12, but state government had implemented it two weeks later they said
A farmer from Keshoraipatan region of Bundi district, Surajmal Nagar harvested around 12 quintals of garlic but has not been able to sell it. Reason, he can’t sell it in the open market where the going rate is Rs 5-6 per kg. He has also not been able to sell it under MIS due to the stringent norms for procurement. “Garlic less than 25 millimetre in size is not being bought under the MIS. Due to this norm, many farmers have failed to sell their produce,” the 61-year-old said.
General secretary of Hadauti Kisan Union Dashrath Kumar questioned the intentions of the state government behind setting such low procurement target. “First, the government started procuring garlic at fair price after a delay of two weeks. Further it fixed the procurement cap at only 40 quintals per hectare whereas it should have been 65 quintals per hectare following bumper this year. The total production is likely to cross 7 lakh metric tonnes but the government announced to procure only 1.54 lakh tonnes,” Kumar said.
He said government should procure the entire produce under MIS “instead of purchasing just of handful of garlic.”
Kumar also demanded that government should have purchased garlic by announcing Minimum Support Price (MSP) instead of under the MIS.
The hadauti region comprising Kota, Bundi, Jahawar and Baran, accounts for about 90% of the state’s production.
Chauthmal Nagar, a farmer leader too alleged that the purchase norms under MIS scheme were so strict that farmers refused to bring their produce to the purchase centres.
He claimed that while three farmers of Hadauti region have already committed suicide, other farmers are also under distress due to low prices of garlic. “The government should come forward and not only extend the dates of garlic purchase but also relax the norms. It should procure the entire produce,” he said.
Rajfed officer in Kota, Tej Singh Nirwan said they have not received any communication for extension of the MIS. “Procurement under MIS has concluded today,” he added. .