Chandigarh, June 12:
To encourage the farmers for crop diversification and supplement their income, the Punjab Government has in a maiden and path breaking initiative, started the procurement of the Summer Moong crop at a Minimum Support Price of Rs. 7275 per quintal directly from the farmers.
Jagraon Mandi in Ludhiana district led the state with the arrival of around 58 percent of the total crop so far.
` The Summer Moong crop is being procured on MSP Rs. 7275 per quintal thereby the farmers will get Rs. 36,000 as an additional income with five quintals expected yield per acre in between Wheat harvest and Paddy cultivation.
Giving affirmative response to appeal of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the farmers of the state have this year sown the Summer Moong crop over around one lakh acres of land as compared to 50,000 acres last year. A yield of 4.75 lac quintal is expected this year.
According to the spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office, Bhagwant Mann had appealed to the farmers, “This step will definitely save the natural resources of the state in terms of precious groundwater besides improving soil health and generating additional income for the farmers. This will further benefit the cultivation of short-duration varieties of paddy which is expected to save 10-20% of underground water.”
The state government has declared Markfed and Cooperative Societies as the state nodal agencies for the procurement and storage of Summer Moong and another logistic support for Marketing Season, 2022-23. Likewise, the Punjab Mandi Board has also notified 40 Mandis for procurement of Moong till July 31, 2022. The staff of Markfed and Cooperative Societies have been deputed in the notified mandis for procuring the Moong besides facilitating the farmers.
As per data available from the Punjab Mandi Board, 1503 quintal Moong crop arrived in various Mandis across the state, of which 878 quintals have already been procured so far. The State agency Markfed procured 663 quintals on MSP, while rest 215 quintals by private agencies on above of MSP.