Andhra red gram farmers cry for attention

ONGOLE: Since the past two weeks, M Vumayya, a young tenant farmer from Chimakurthi Mandal, has been making rounds of the government red gram stock purchase centre (SPC) established at the Mandal headquarters, to sell his produce. But his efforts remain futile as the SPC staff have been rejecting his stock-raising doubts over its quality.

On the first occasion, they told him that the stock had not dried properly and the seeds contained more than permissible moisture. On the second, they suggested that the seeds be made to pass through the ‘two-filter’ system; on his latest visit, they okayed the stock but purchased only half of it.

This is not the tale of one Vumayya, but many red gram farmers who are eagerly waiting to sell their produce at the government announced minimum support price (MSP) at these SPCs, but are suffering a lot due to the apathy of the staff.

The government had announced MSP for the red gram and Bengal gram stocks and opened SPCs through the Andhra Pradesh State Co-operative Marketing Federation (AP MARKFED).

The stock finally reaches the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED).
Though the MARKFED has opened 30 SPCs for red gram stock and 29 more for Bengal gram (peanuts), private purchasers are offering lower price than the government decided MSP — `5,800 per quintal for red gram and ` 4,875 per quintal for Bengal gram — and many small and medium scale pulses farmers have already sold their yields to those private purchasers.

As the established MARKFED SPCs are purchasing stocks only from the farmers who have already enrolled their names in the government’s eKarshak App, private pulses purchasers are trying to sell their stocks in the names of farmers at these SPCs.

According to agriculture officials, district farmers cultivated red gram in around 92,530 hectares and Bengal gram in 84,685 hectares with an estimated crop yielding of 1.03 lakh tonnes and 1.50 lakh tonnes, respectively.  Meanwhile, the private merchants who have already purchased the red gram stocks from the farmers at lower than the MSP are now trying to sell their stocks at the MSP at these SPCs in the names of farmers who are already enrolled in the eKarshak App.

“Strict instructions are issued to all SPC staff on identifying and purchasing stocks from those farmers, who already enrolled their names in the eKarshak App and any malpractices in this regard would be viewed seriously and stringent action would be taken,” said Rama Devi, district manager- MARKFED.