Pulse procurement by agencies gets farmers better price

New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) Direct procurement of pulses by the government agencies at minimum support price (MSP) has helped farmers get 'better price' for their crop, an official announcement said here on Tuesday.

An inter-ministerial meeting here, presided over by Union Food Secretary Hem Pande, was informed that government agencies, including the Food Corporation of India (FCI), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NACMF) and Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC), have started procurement operations to ensure minimum support price to farmers after the arrival of the crop in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

At least, 200 centres have already been set up in pulse-producing states to facilitate easier procurement by official agencies and more centres will be added after arrival of Tur crop in October-November, the Union Food Ministry said.

The Union Food Secretary directed the procurement agencies to ensure that farmers get minimum support price for pulses and wide publicity should be given to the procurement operations in pulse-procuring pockets, the statement said.

The meeting also reviewed the price and availability of pulses.

The central government on August 1 had directed Nafed, FCI and SFAC to gear up for procurement of pulses at the minimum support price plus bonus in Karnataka, Maharashtra and other pulse-growing states.