India to double state purchases of oilseeds, pulses

In a bid to give a boost to farmers, the Union Cabinet has doubled state purchases of oilseeds and pulses from them.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the regularisation and extension of Government Guarantee provided to lender bank for providing credit limit to National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) Rs 19,000 crore from earlier Rs 9,500 crore for undertaking procurement operation of pulses and oilseeds under Price Support Scheme (PSS) and to Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) for Rs 45 crore for meeting their existing liability and settlement of extant claims.

These Government Guarantees are valid for a period of five years, till 2021-22.

As the market price of most pulses and oilseeds is below the Government of India prescribed-Minimum Support Price (MSP) these provisions will help farmers in selling their produce at the MSP, and will also help prevent a situation where they are forced to make flash sales of their crops, because of the supply-demand gap, during peak arrival periods.

It will also encourage higher investment in the agro-sector and consequently yield higher production and safeguard the interest of the consumers by making supplies available at a reasonable price.