Gujcomasol's groundnut procurement gets lukewarm response from farmers

Even as a bumper groundnut crop is expected this year, a move by Gujarat Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited (Gujcomasol) to procure groundnut has received lukewarm response from the farmers.

Traders informed that the reason for poor response to the state agency's groundnut procurement drive was mainly because it involved paper work with unfavourable payment option.

The agency Gujcomasol had started groundnut procurement from November 8 as the prices fell below the minimum support price (MSP) at around Rs 650 per 20 kg. Gujcomasol has so far procured only about 740 tonnes of groundnut from around 17 centres across state in the past 10 days. Groundnut arrival has been reproted at around 3,500 tonnes per day.

According to farmers, they have to give details such as size of farm, the area on which farmers grow, per hectare yield etc. Farmers found the process of bringing all these documents from the office of Talati to be cumbersome and time-consuming.

Moreover, farmers have expresed discomfort over the mode of payment by Gujcomasol, which issued cheques to the farmers for the payments.

A Gujcomasol official said, "It is true that farmers' response is poor as they are getting cash payment for their product in open market. But we are hopeful and our procurement will gain momentum in coming days."

The average price of groundnut in Gujarat is ruling on Rs 650-775 per 20 kg.

Further, as per the records, if yield does not match the government criteria, Gujcomasol would not buy from farmers. As per government criteria, per hectare yield should be 700 to 1,900 kg. However, this year, due to good rains across the growing regions, the yield has increased to 2,400 kg per hectare.

While talking about Gujcomasol procurement method, farmers maintained, "We are getting cash payment from traders and need not to give any documents for sale our product. So, for a nominal margin, why should we go to Gujcomasol?"

Sources informed that last time in 2001 Gujcomasol and Nafed had procured groundnut in Gujarat. The agencies enter the market whenever the market price falls below the MSP levels, which is Rs 800 per 20 kg.