Gurugram gears up as 20k farmers to bring wheat, mustard to markets

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram March 22

As grain markets gear up for the procurement of mustard crop from March 26 and wheat from April 1, the Gurugram administration has ordered a review and ugradation of infrastructure for visiting farmers.

DC CHAIRS MEETING

• Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav chaired a meeting of the procurement and market committee and issued orders to ensure that arrangements for facilities such as proper storage, drinking water, gunny bags and parking are made for the farmers who are set to visit the district’s grain markets.
• He said arrangements for proper warehouses should be made, adding that agents should have tarpaulin, spring, weights, adequate labor and sufficient number of sewing machines for sealing the gunny bags.
• Only the crops of farmers registered on the portal would be available in the markets for the government procurement. As per the instructions of the government, the crop would be purchased on a token basis.

According to the Agriculture Department, more than 20,000 farmers have registered mustard and wheat crops in nearly 90,000 acres of land on the ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal. The government has fixed the price of mustard at Rs 5,650 and wheat at Rs 2,275 per quintal.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav chaired a meeting of the procurement and market committee and issued orders to ensure that the arrangements for facilities such as proper storage, drinking water, gunny bags and parking are made for the farmers who are set to visit the district’s grain markets.

The Electricity Department has also been asked to review their infrastructure to ensure that there is no power outage.

“We need to see last year’s figures to work on our projections of this year and make necessary arrangements. We need to ensure that all mechanisms are in place so that the grain being brought is lifted on the same day. Similarly, the farmers need to have proper parking spaces, sheds, toilets, etc. and the officials concerned have been asked to get everything in place,” said DC Yadav.

He said arrangements for proper warehouses should be made, adding that agents should have tarpaulin, spring, weights, adequate labor and sufficient number of sewing machines for sealing the gunny bags.

The DC said only the crops of farmers registered on the portal would be available in the markets for the government procurement. As per the instructions of the government, the crop would be purchased on a token basis.

He also warned the officials to ensure that no bogus tokens make their way and farmers from other district or states try to infiltrate the grain markets there.

Notably, lured by the government’s procurement rates, many farmers from neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh try to sell their

produce in Nuh and Gurugram mandis.

“Strict checks will be carried out. We will be ensuring that there is no dearth of tokens and that there is no lacunae that would allow any non-registered person to sell off their crops here,” added Yadav.