After a decade, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) plans to buy around 2 lakh metric tonnes of maize from farmers in Bihar this season from April.
The central agency is also expected to set up procurement centres in central and west Bihar districts to purchase around 60,000 metric tonnes of pulses, particularly masoor from the farmers on minimum support price (MSP).
Officials said the agency has arranged sufficient funds to ensure instant payment to the farmers, who were earlier forced to sell their farm produce on throwaway prices in the absence of procurement on the MSP.
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The Nafed agreed to revive its network after the civil supplies and consumer protection department requested the agency to relaunch the procurement process for crops other than paddy and wheat.
“We are in touch with the state cooperative department and primary agriculture cooperative societies to set up procurement centres for pulses at Ara, Buxar, Nalanda, Gaya, Aurangabad, and Nawada. Districts for setting up maize procurement are being identified,” said Nafed branch manager, Patna, Yatendra Singh.
{{/usCountry}}“We are in touch with the state cooperative department and primary agriculture cooperative societies to set up procurement centres for pulses at Ara, Buxar, Nalanda, Gaya, Aurangabad, and Nawada. Districts for setting up maize procurement are being identified,” said Nafed branch manager, Patna, Yatendra Singh.
{{/usCountry}}According to agricultural experts, the estimated production of maize and pulses is likely to cross around 6 lakh metric tonne and 5 lakh metric tonnes this season.
In the absence of a mechanism for state-sponsored procurement, the area for pulses’ production declined to 4.39 lakh hectare in 2019-20 as compared to 10.83 lakh hectare in 1991-92.