Indore: Procurement of wheat and gram by government will start from March 26. But, it seems that turnout of farmers with wheat will be very low at centres since they are already getting better prices in open market. Also, gram crops, which were mostly substandard due to bad weather conditions, have already been sold in open market as government procurement process got delayed.Local administration has witnessed registration of 25,000 farmers, which is less in number as compared to 28,000 wheat farmers registered last year, across the district. As sanctioned, the registered farmers will get Rs 1840 minimum support price (MSP) against one quintal of wheat of fair average quality along with bonus of Rs 160/quintal.“The bonus will be given to farmers whether they sell their crops at our centres or in open market,” district food and civil supplies controller L Mujalda told TOI.Since farmers will get bonus against each quintal of produce sold by them irrespective of the marketplace, they are expected to prefer open markets, where prices are higher than government MSP.“The farmers are getting Rs 2100 to Rs2300/quintal for wheat crops in open market and the bonus. It will somewhere help the registered farmers to get good value between Rs 2300 and Rs 2500 /quintal. The chances for farmers opting government outlets is low,” Bharatiya Kisan Union district president Bablu Jadhav told TOI.Last year, district administration had procured 1.08 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and this year preparations have been made for procurement of 1.20 lakh metric tonnes of the crop. The farmers will not get bonus on gram crops. Also, hailstorm and frost have affected their quality and quantity.“Government will only procure gram crops of fair average quality and bad weather has affected both quality and quantity of the harvest. Due to this, farmers are forced to sell substandard produce between Rs 3600 and 3800/quintal. The government MSP is set at Rs 4620/quintal for fair average quality gram,” Jadhav claimed.The district food and civil supplies controller said that government, which had procured 35,000 metric tonne of gram crops last year, has set no target for this harvest. The procurement for gram crops will be carried out from eight centres.

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