No purchase of mustard in mandis of Nuh, Gurugram on Day 1
Sumedha Sharma
Gurugram, March 26
While the procurement of mustard officially started today in Haryana, no procurement was carried out in mandis of Nuh and Gurugram. In some mandis, it was pending verification of crops by the Revenue Department, which delayed issuing of procurement tokens to the farmers, in others, it was the delay in the allotment of tenders for mandi labour and excessive moisture in crop which affected the procurement on Day 1. Haryana State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (Hafed) Manager Neeraj Yadav confirmed that there was no procurement, but refused to divulge any reasons.
According to the commission agents in Nuh, the procurement in mandis like Tauru was stalled due to the non-availability of crop-weighing infrastructure and pending verification of crops.
“Earlier, we used to help with the weighing of the crop for the procurement agencies like Hafed, but now, we don’t want to be part of it. The government has not made any arrangement for the weighing of the crops in mandis like Tauru so no crop could be procured by the government,” said one of the agents. According to mandi officials, the Revenue Department had not yet verified the crop in many areas, which delayed the issuance of procurement cupons to the farmers in Nuh. A local farmer, Huzoor, who had brought his crop sold it at a loss of around Rs 500 per quintal.
“The government is not buying today but I have already brought my produce here and sold it to the commission agent. We cannot risk keeping the crop as the moisture content may increase. A majority of us are selling it. The government should announce procurement after putting infrastructure in place,” said Huzoor.
One of the Hafed officials said in Gurugram one of key concerns today was high moisture content. “While the prescribed limit of moisture for mustard is 8%, the produce that came in today had around 13% moisture. Such a crop cannot be procured as per the rules,” said the official.
