The Maharashtra Government has asked the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) to procure an additional one lakh tonnes of tur dal and 75,000 tonnes of Bengal gram in the view of bumper arrivals of the crops in the market.
Due to the good monsoon in 2016, agriculture market yards across Maharashtra have reported much higher arrivals of crops, leading to massive decline in wholesale prices and fight for warehouse space.
A press statement issued by the Chief Minister’s office said that market intervention by NAFED will help arrest the decline in prices.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had held a meeting in New Delhi with officials and the deadline for procuring Tur dal was extended to April 15.
Due to higher arrivals of the crops, wholesale and retail grain merchants have been allowed to triple their grain storage capacity for the next three months, the statement said.
The statement added that for year 2016-17, the minimum procurement price for tur dal has been set at ₹5,050 a quintal from December 15, 2016
Agencies such as NAFED, Food Corporation of India, Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium and Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board have started buying crops in 286 centres across the State, which has resulted in 1.93 lakh tonnes of tur dal procurement, the statement said.