Buying starts, but 50% farmers yet to register crops on portal

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 1

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Though the procurement for rabi crop was on from today, just 8.25 lakh out of the total nearly 16 lakh farmers could upload their crop details on the state government’s “Meri Fasal, Mera Byora” portal, a step mandatory for the procurement of farmers’ crops.

Of the 84 lakh acres under cultivation of various crops during this rabi crop season, nearly 54.3 lakh acres have been registered on the portal.

The state government has now decided to open the portal for two more days so that the farmers who have been left out because of any reasons could upload their information on the portal.

Dr Sumita Misra, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, Haryana, confirmed that on the demand of farmers, the government had decided to reopen “Meri Fasal Mera Byora” portal for two days on April 5 and April 6 so that those who could not register earlier can do so and become eligible for selling their produce to the government procurement agencies.

“During the rabi crop 2020 season, 59.5 lakh acres were registered on the portal, while this time it is 54.3 lakh acres, which is 91.2 per cent of the previous year. As far as the number of farmers is concerned, 12 lakh farmers registered themselves on the portal during the last rabi crop season, while this time the number is 8.25 lakh, which is 69 per cent of the figures of the last year,” she added.

Dr Misra added that the total area under cropping was around 84 lakh acres and while there was no exact data of the total number of farmers in Haryana, the Census figures showed that there were 16 lakh landowners.

She exuded confidence that the left-out farmers would be able to register their crop details on the portal when it was reopened for two days.

Meanwhile, various reasons are being cited for low registration on the portal.

Krishan Mehta, an arhtiya, said registration in four villages — Badagudha, Beeruwala Gudha, Raghuana and Jhiri — of his Sirsa district was zero so far.

“Farmers from these villages bring crop to my shop. They told me that this time, girdawari was delayed a lot and was completed on March 27 only. Unless the patwaris complete girdawari and mention crop of the farmer, the portal doesn’t allow farmers to upload their information,” said Mehta.

Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer, cited technical glitches due to the poor quality of the website as a major reason behind low registration.

He also mentioned frequent errors like “the village patwari not describing the land as cultivable” coming while uploading the details on the system.

“Also, the government has made ‘Parivar Pehchan Patra’ mandatory from this time, which is also responsible for poor registration,” said Mann.

Karnal: With the announcement of the state government to start wheat procurement from April 1, the district administration has set up 32 purchase centres. On the first day, no procurement was done till 7 pm.

Around 330 quintals of wheat arrived only in the Assandh grain market, while in other grain markets no farmer brought his crop.

“We have made all arrangements at all 32 purchase centres. Officials and employees have been deployed at the purchase centres to ensure smooth procurement, lifting and transportation of wheat,” said Nishant Kumar Yadav, DC.