Rohtak: Mustard farmers facing problems in selling produce at grain markets

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, April 4

Mustard farmers are facing problems in selling their produce at the local grain markets. They said many of them were unable to register their produce on the government portal online due to lack of knowledge and/or technical snags in the system.

Getting lower rates

The mustard produce, which fetched up to Rs 6,600 per quintal a couple of years ago, is now getting much lower rates as of now — Dr SS Sangwan, former general manager, Nabard

“The offline registration by the patwaris is also not done properly, due to which we have to face problems in selling our produce,” laments Surender, a farmer of Ritoli village in the district.

He points out that the entire produce of farmers is not being purchased due to mismatch of on-ground and official data. The produce of the farmers who have not registered on the government web portal is not purchased by the government agencies.

Such farmers are forced to sell their produce to private players at rates below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,650 per quintal.

At times, the farmers whose produce is rejected due to high moisture content also sell it to private persons in distress. “We have to face much difficulty in getting the token for the sale of our produce,” rues Sonu of Baland village.

However, secretary of Market Committee Devender Dhull said the purchase of mustard was being done by government agencies at the MSP. “Only a few farmers who have not registered on the government portal may have sold their produce to private persons,” he said. As per official data, 4,619.42 metric tonnes of mustard has been purchased in the district.

Dr SS Sangwan, former general manager at NABARD, says the government’s policy to facilitate import of cooking oils and putting a cap on the purchase of oilseeds from farmers has led to reduction in the price of mustard. “The mustard produce, which fetched a price of up to Rs 6,600 per quintal a couple of years ago, is now getting much lower rates as of now,” he says.

Inderjit Singh, vice-president of the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), said import liberalisation of edible oils by the Union government was aimed at benefitting the industrialists, but was detrimental to farmers.