News of

Market News

In International Year of Millets, Guj Agri Minister says drafting scheme to increase cultivation area
May 29, 2023

To incentivise millet cultivation in Gujarat, the state government is in the process of drafting a scheme to provide assistance to farmers for purchasing seeds, fertilisers and crop protection chemicals, Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel said in Rajkot

on Friday. He added that procurement of millets from farmers by the government has already begun.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of farmers largely remaining indifferent to government operations for procuring millets at minimum support price (MSP) during the ongoing Rabi marketing season.

Underlining that the state Budget for 2023-24 has allotted Rs 30 crore to the Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation to procure millets from farmers, Patel said that farmers need encouragement in form of assistance in purchasing inputs also to persuade them to sow millet in more area.

Speaking to The Indian Express on the sidelines of a media event, Patel, also the minister in charge of Rajkot, said: 'The government wants to give assistance to farmers in purchasing inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides for cultivation of millets. We are drafting a scheme and tentatively, we will provide assistance to each farmer with an upper limit of two hectare of cultivation area for millets.'

At the request of India, the United Nations is celebrating 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets’ (IYM). Millets require very less irrigation, are resistant to changes in climate and can be cultivated in arid land also.

India, the largest millets producer of the world, had celebrated 2018 as the year of millets. In 2020, India’s production of pearl millet (bajra) and sorghum (jowar) was 124.88 million tonne (mt) and 34.75 mt, respectively. They respectively accounted for 40.51 per cent and 7.58 per cent of the global production. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat account for more than 83 per cent of total millet production.

Gujarat is a major producer of pearl millet and sorghum. As per state government data, farmers sowed bajra in 1.85 lakh hectare (lh) in 2022 Kharif season and 2.79 lh in 2023 summer season, with cumulative production pegged at 1.14 mt. To celebrate IYM, the state had for the first time decided in March to procure bajra, jowar (hybrid), jowar (maldandi), ragi (finer millet) and maize from farmers at MSP and then distribute the same among the poor through the pubic distribution system.

The government had originally decided to procure these grains at the Union government-fixed per quintal MSP of Rs 2,350 for bajra, Rs 2,970 for jowar (hybrid), Rs 2,990 for jowar (maldandi), Rs 3,578 for finger millet and Rs 1,962 for maize.

The government had opened the window of registration for farmers between March 1 and 31. 'But the response from farmers was lukewarm, as market prices are either at par or higher than the MSP. This forced the government to declare Rs 300 bonus for bajra, jowar and finger millet over and above their respective MSP on May 9 and keep the registration window open till date,' a government source said.

The state food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department has set a target of procuring 45,000 metric tonne (MT) of bajra, 4,000 MT of jowar, 1,000 MT of finger millet and 10,000 MT of maize during Rabi marketing season of 2022-23. The Rs 300 bonus per quintal (10 quintals make one MT) took the effective procurement price of bajra, jowar and ragi to Rs 2,650, Rs 3,270 and Rs 3,878, respectively. The government opened procurement centres on April 1. They are scheduled to remain open till June 15.

Nonetheless, farmers seem to have shown little enthusiasm to sell their harvest to the government. Official data shows that as of May 26, only 7,432 farmers had registered for selling bajra, 178 for jowar, 526 for maize and only two for selling ragi.

In around two-month-long operations, only 44 of the 7,432 farmers have turned up at government procurement centres with their 168 quintal of bajra. Jowar and ragi procurement is nil, as no farmer has responded to SMS alerts of the government to cart their produce to procurement centre. Only 17 farmers, all from Mahisagar district, have sold 99 quintal of maize to the government.

Patel agreed that farmers are not queuing up to sell their harvest to the government. 'The process of procurement is on but even after our announcement of bonus, farmers are not making a beeline as yet. This indicates that market prices are high,' he said.

According to official data, cultivation area of pearl millet – the widely cultivated millet variety in Gujarat – fell from 10.86 lh in 1995-96 to 9.15 lh in 2005-06. It plummeted to 3.9 lh by 2015-16. In 2022-23, the cumulative bajra acreage is 4.63 lh. However, the data shows that production has remained stable at an average of 1 mt.

'It is a fact that the acreage and production of millets has fallen in Gujarat. This calls for a two-pronged strategy. We need to incentivise farmers by providing them inputs so that they bring more area under millets cultivation and then try to ensure that they get good price of their harvest,' Patel told mediapersons, for whom he hosted a luncheon where various preparations of millets were served.

indianexpress.com

Trade Leads

Directory's

APEDA Agri Exchange

News & Analysis

Contact

Trade Leads

Directory's

APEDA Agri Exchange

News & Analysis

Follow Us

Contact