E-Paper
Falling mustard prices worry Haryana farmers
Due to the lack of procurement by government agencies in Haryana, mustard farmers are being forced to sell their produce from ₹4,800 to ₹5,200 per quintal against the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹5,450 fixed by the Union government.
After two consecutive rich harvests, mustard growers in Haryana are a worried lot as the prices in the private market have recorded a steep decline of around 25%.
Due to the lack of procurement by government agencies, farmers are being forced to sell their produce from ₹4,800 to ₹5,200 per quintal against the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹5,450 fixed by the Union government. The price of yellow mustard has come down to ₹5,400 against ₹7,000 it fetched last year.
The harvesting of early maturing varieties of mustard is picking up but the falling prices have dismayed farmers as the government agencies will start procurement from March 28.
“I have sold mustard seeds (yellow) on four acres at ₹5,300 per quintal while last year it fetched ₹7,150 per quintal. Even the yield is good this year but the fall in prices has caused a loss of around ₹15,000 per acre,” said a farmer Surender Kumar, who sold his produce to private buyers at Ladwa grain market of Kurukshetra district.
Since the harvesting of early maturing varieties is at peak, farmers demand that the government should advance the procurement operations in the interest of the farmers.
Another farmer Naresh Kumar of Indri in Karnal said, “I have to sell my produce to private buyers at ₹5,100 per quintal as I cannot store it for one month and wait for government’s procurement”.
Even private traders are predicting that prices may fall further as the cost of crude palm oil and mustard oil fell in the domestic market in the past six months and the retail prices have declined to around ₹150 per litre from ₹200.
Also, the sudden fall in the prices have worried traders who have stored huge stocks of mustard and were waiting to sell their produce at a higher price and the private traders are also not showing interest in the procurement this year.
“Last year we had purchased around 100 quintal of mustard seeds at ₹7,400 per quintal but a few months later the prices declined to around ₹5,500 and I could not clear the last year’s stock yet. I am not purchasing mustard seed this year,” said Balbeer Singh, a trader.
However, Haryana chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal in a statement said that the procurement of mustard will begin from March 28, gram from April 1 and sunflower from June 1. The Haryana State Warehousing Corporation will procure mustard at MSP under the Government of India price support system on behalf of National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India.
However, officials are of the view that there are no plans to advance the procurement and it will start as per the schedule.
Increasing prices of mustard in the past three years had encouraged mustard cultivation and the acreage under mustard had increased to around 7.35 lakh hectares from 6.10 lakh hectares in 2020-21.
Last year, the Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (Hafed) had procured 34,500 MTs of mustard through e-auction commercial purchase.
