Bumper moong harvest revives Madhya Pradesh's farm procurement challenge

Farmers forced the state to raise summer moong procurement coverage to nearly 60 per cent as a bumper harvest, falling prices and limited buying avenues revived an old agricultural crisis

A few days ago, thousands of farmers squatted along the busy Bhopal-Narmadapuram highway in Madhya Pradesh demanding 100 per cent procurement of the summer moong crop, besides other demands.

 

Following a week-long protest, the protest finally ended after the state government assured them of 60 per cent procurement, a more than two-fold increase from the earlier promised 25 per cent.

 

The protests by farmers — which came almost nine years after a massive uprising in Mandsaur in 2017 that eventually led to the fall of the then Shivraj Singh Chouhan government — were, ironically, once again caused by the same old problem of over production despite limited avenues of selling.

 

This, in turn, puts pressure on governments to increase procurement operations, exacerbating fiscal pressures, not to mention the logistical nightmare of transporting and storing the produce.

 

In 2017, the Mandsaur agitation was largely a reaction to falling onion and garlic prices in the Malwa-Nimar belt, eventually leading to police firing on farmers, killing at least six, and injuring an equal number. The then government, with Chouhan as chief minister, embarked on a massive exercise to restore its credibility among farmers, hit hard by falling prices, which was later identified as a key reason for the unrest.

 

Chouhan first went on a three-day fast immediately after the firing, appealing for peace to be restored, while his cabinet stayed up all night to purchase all onions and garlic cultivated by farmers at set prices, which was one of the key demands of the protestors.

 

In the latter half of the year, around the kharif season, the state implemented one of the most ambitious programmes to de-risk price fluctuation in farm commodities by starting the Bhawantar Bhugtan Yojana (Price Deficit Financing Scheme).

 

In simple terms, under the programme, the state compensated farmers for loss in realisation but with an upper cap. Initially, nine kharif crops were included in the scheme, but more were added later.

 

Almost a decade later, the response and playbook remain almost the same, barring minor changes.

 

The present Mohan Yadav-led government first constituted a high-level panel to negotiate with the protesting farmers but acquiesced soon after, raising the quantum of procurement and agreeing to bear the expenditure of the balance 35 per cent.

 

In between all this, Chouhan - who now heads the Union agriculture ministry - wrote to current Madhya Pradesh CM Yadav asking him to first exhaust the existing quota of 454,580 tonnes of moong procurement allocated to the state before buying more. The agriculture minister's letter, according to sources, was in response to repeated demands from the state to increase the procurement quota in light of the bumper harvest.

 

He also urged the state government to expedite procurement of summer moong under the Price Support Scheme (PSS), stating that the state had until then procured only around 60,000 tonnes against an approved quantity of 454,580 tonnes, the highest procurement approval granted to any state this season.

 

Chouhan also clarified in his letter that the Centre does not assign procurement ‘targets’ to states and that the PM-AASHA guidelines do not allow procurement under the PSS beyond 25 per cent of a state's estimated production.

 

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. The expenditure of the enhanced quantity has to be borne by the state government.

 

Chouhan also said in his letter that the central government 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 farmers' produce was purchased,” Chouhan's letter said.

 

The epistolary faceoff aside, the moong episode in Madhya Pradesh once again exposes the complex interplay between overproduction, falling prices, and the government's response.

 

As per central government data, moong production in Madhya Pradesh, one of the main growers, rose by a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.81 per cent between the 2021-22 and 2025-26 crop years (July to June), while the area under the crop rose by 49.53 per cent CAGR in the same period. The per hectare yields of moong between 2021-22 and 2025-26 in the state rose by just 0.80 per cent CAGR during the same period, from 1,209 kg to 1,248 kg.

 

In short, the surge in moong production in Madhya Pradesh in the last four-five years has come largely from an increase in area rather than per hectare yields.

 

Some experts said the major reason for this is the emphasis on growing moong during the summer season as well, between the rabi harvest and kharif sowing; this is locally called ‘grishm qaaleen’ moong (summer-moong).

 

This emphasis on growing moong during summers to meet growing demand and provide a third crop alternative to farmers has sometimes led to overproduction, resulting in a drop in prices.

 

There have even been allegations that farmers over-used harmful chemicals to quicken the drying of moong leaves so that the summer crop can be harvested before the onset of the monsoon in June and July.

 

Rahul Raj, a spokesperson of the Madhya Pradesh Congress and farmers’ activist, said the primary reason behind the farmers' protest over summer moong procurement was the mismatch between production and the government's procurement quota.

 

He said last year, the procurement limit was fixed at 3.5 quintals per acre because production was relatively low, but this year, the state’s production increased significantly to around 2 million tonnes (MT), while the procurement quota remained unchanged at 25 per cent of total production. “Summer moong is primarily cultivated in the Narmada belt, especially in Harda and Narmadapuram districts, with some cultivation now extending to parts of Sehore. Farmers in these districts harvested around 7-8 quintals per acre, but procurement slips were issued for only about 1.25 quintals per acre. Their concern was simple: where would they sell the remaining produce?” Raj said.

 

Earlier, successive state governments had supplemented the Centre's procurement quota with additional state procurement whenever production increased. Since Madhya Pradesh accounts for nearly 87 per cent of India's summer moong production, farmers expected a similar intervention this year.

 

Raj said that the farmers initially demanded that the procurement limit be raised to at least five quintals per acre.

 

“Following the protests, a consensus was reached to increase it to three quintals per acre. This effectively raised procurement coverage from about 25 per cent to nearly 60 per cent. The additional procurement beyond the Centre's allocation will now be undertaken by the state government,” he noted.

 

“On the day the protest took place, only about 36,000 tonnes of moong had been procured, whereas nearly 450,000 tonnes should have been procured under the approved 25 per cent quota. If the state procures only a fraction of the eligible quantity over an entire month, it cannot shift the blame to the Centre,” he said.