Centre asks MP to speed up summer moong procurement, exhaust quota first

Clarification comes amid farmers' protests demanding 100 per cent procurement at MSP, with the Centre saying additional approvals can follow only after the existing quota is exhausted

The Centre has urged the Madhya Pradesh government to expedite procurement of summer moong under the Price Support Scheme (PSS), stating that the state has so far procured only around 60,000 tonnes against an approved quantity of 454,580 tonnes, the highest procurement approval granted to any state this season.

 

In a letter to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is also a former chief minister of the state, said the Centre had already approved procurement of up to 454,580 tonnes of summer moong for the 2025-26 season under the PM-AASHA scheme. This accounts for nearly 87 per cent of the total national approval of 523,243 tonnes for various states, making Madhya Pradesh the largest beneficiary.

 

Chouhan's letter comes in the wake of massive protests by farmers in and around the state capital, Bhopal, over the past few days, demanding 100 per cent procurement of summer moong at the minimum support price (MSP), beyond the mandatory 25 per cent of production, as prices have slumped sharply.

 

On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav formed a committee comprising ministers to hold talks with the agitating farmers over their various demands and expressed confidence that a solution would be found.

 

The agitation disrupted traffic on the busy Narmadapuram Highway. Raising anti-government slogans, the protesting farmers reached Budhni in Sehore district late on Monday evening before arriving in Bhopal on Tuesday.

 

The state government has held the first round of talks with the farmers, but the discussions remained inconclusive.

 

Meanwhile, Chouhan, in his letter, clarified that the Centre does not assign procurement "targets" to states and said the PM-AASHA guidelines allow procurement under the Price Support Scheme of up to 25 per cent of a state's estimated production in the first instance.

 

He said any procurement beyond this ceiling can be considered only after the initially approved quantity has been fully exhausted and is subject to examination and approval by the Committee of Secretaries, within the overall national limit of 25 per cent of India's production of the commodity.

 

For the 2025-26 summer season, the Centre has approved procurement of 523,243 tonnes of moong across the country, including 454,580 tonnes for Madhya Pradesh, 48,298 tonnes for Uttar Pradesh, 18,250 tonnes for Gujarat and 2,115 tonnes for Haryana.

 

The Union minister noted that the Centre has consistently extended the maximum permissible support to Madhya Pradesh under the scheme. Procurement approvals for the state have steadily increased from 275,645 tonnes in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 to 330,763 tonnes in 2023-24, 419,692 tonnes in 2024-25 and 454,580 tonnes in 2025-26.

 

Any procurement beyond these approved quantities in previous years was undertaken by the state government to ensure that farmers' produce was purchased.