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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bumper Harvest: Smile's back on Madhya Pradesh's farmers -Milind Ghatwai

Bumper Harvest: Smile's back on Madhya Pradesh's farmers -Milind Ghatwai

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published Published on Apr 28, 2017   modified Modified on Apr 28, 2017
-The Indian Express

A good, even if not record, wheat crop along with improved prices brings cheer after two not-so-good years.

Dewas (Madhya Pradesh):
Manohar Singh Sendhav cannot offhand recall the number of trips he has made to the Dewas mandi or to the shining steel silo at Durgapur, some 10 km away.

Undaunted by the searing noon heat, this farmer from Chandakhedi village in Dewas district’s Sonkatch taluka watches his tractor driver getting the unloaded wheat weighed at the silo, whose four bins together can store 50,000 tonnes of grain. “The weather’s been good this time, with no frost, unseasonal rains or hailstorm,” he says, making a gesture of gratitude towards the skies.

With his 100-bigha (20 hectares; five bigha make a hectare) holding, the Class XII-pass Sendhav is a relatively big cultivator. He is happy to have harvested 10 quintals per bigha (five tonnes/hectare) on an average, more than the 7-8 quintals during the last couple of years.

Sendhav does not divulge how much of his 1,000-odd quintals he has sold so far, both to private traders at the mandi and to the government at the silo designed, built and operated by Adani Agri Logistics Ltd.

“I’m a Congress worker, but will admit that things have really improved for farmers under the present (BJP) regime,” notes Sendhav, who can afford to play the market, given the backstop option he has of selling to state agencies at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,625 per quintal in case the mandi rates aren’t good enough. Sendhav is also happy selling at the silo — Madhya Pradesh (MP) has eight such depots of similar capacity, including six run by Adani Agri — where the entire offloading, weighing and handling of grain is automated. It dispenses with the need for paying porters, spending nights outside mandis during peak procurement time, or offering speed money to officials.

“Once the farmer enters the silo premises, the whole process takes less than half-an-hour. As a result, many of them make multiple trips in a day. And, since the silo works round the clock, there are no queues, too,” claims Manish Shukla, terminal manager at the Durgapur silo that started functioning in 2015.

But unlike Sendhav, Mangilal Pichhola is a picture of dejection. “My crop hasn’t been too good, though I have heard that farmers in general have reaped a bumper harvest this year,” complains the 72-year-old, resting on a cot next to his 12-bigha field in Narana, a village about 16 km from Dewas. Out of his 55 quintals of wheat — working out to an average yield of just 2.3 tonnes per hectare — Pichhola has already sold 30 quintals in the mandi for Rs 1,700 and the balance 25 quintals at the MSP of Rs 1,625/quintal. “I have neither the storage nor holding capacity to wait for prices to go up further,” he adds.

Govind Parmar of Bairagarh village in Dewas tehsil has even less land, at 5.5 bigha. Yet, he is prepared to wait for a few weeks before disposing of his 40 quintals produce. “If mandi prices don’t go up, I will sell to the government. Of course, the rates, instead of rising, could actually fall to Rs 1,500 per quintal or so,” he points out.

Sendhav, Pichhola and Parmar operate at different scales and different expectations, but all three are agreed that this year’s wheat crop is the best in at least two years. The MP government goes a further step. The 2016-17 crop now being marketed, according to it, is the best ever, with production estimated at 21.2 million tonnes (mt) and 8.5 mt out of this to be procured by state agencies. But as on April 25, government procurement stood at only 4.38 mt, as against 3.44 mt purchased during this time in the last marketing season (which, for MP, starts from mid-March). At the same time, cumulative market arrivals, at 6.05 mt, have been significantly more than 3.86 mt during this period of 2016.

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The Indian Express, 27 April, 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/bumper-harvest-smiles-back-on-madhya-pradeshs-farmers-4629729/


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