Farmers less interested in wheat procurement, admn may miss target
Indore: Indore district administration is unlikely to achieve its target of procurement of around 3.5 lakh metric tonne of wheat this rabi season due to farmers showing less interest in selling their crops at the minimum support price (MSP) despite the state govt offering them a bonus of Rs 125 per quintal.
Reason: Farmers prefer to sell their wheat crop in the open market due to higher rates being offered to them than the govt.
But, senior officials are blaming a considerable reduction in wheat productivity due to hailstorm and other extreme weather conditions, for low turnout of farmers. They said that wheat production had reduced to around 35-40 quintal per hectare to earlier around 50 quintal per hectare this season. .
“Around 40,000 farmers have registered in Indore to sale their crops to govt at MSP of Rs 2,275 per quintal, while they are also being offered bonus of Rs 125/quintal,” said cooperative department deputy registrar Madan Gajbhiye , adding that 91 centres have been erected for wheat procurement that has started from March 20 and so far, around 10,000 farmers have sold around 1.5 lakh metric
tonne of their crop at MSP. He added that their target is to procure around 3.5 lakh metric tonne of wheat crops from the farmers of Indore.