NAFED MSP PROCUREMENT – FACTS PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW
NAFED MSP PROCUREMENT – FACTS PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW
NAFED MSP Procurement:
NAFED, an independent
public sector organization is entrusted with the responsibility of supporting
various states through market intervention program of buying produce directly
from farmers with minimum support price
(MSP) or MSP plush state declared addl bonus and store in the godowns. NAFED engaged StarAgri as their warehouse
partners and local procurement is entrusted to APMCs and other local channels
through respective State Markfeds or NeML.
Certification of crop
extent, giving sale permits to farmers etc is handled by Markfeds in
coordination with revenue and agriculture departments. Genuine farmers had
night mare crossing these hurdles, where as traders and political personalities
under the cover of farmer, could reach NAFED godowns directly bypassing the
systems and controls.
Farmers’
Situation:
In case of poor farmers,
they have to make produce lots in market
yards, based on serial number their turn will come, they have to reload the
stock after inspection ( quality check of Markfed is only provisional) and
deliver at StarAgri go down. The quality
check of StarAgri at their go down is final and in case they refuse, farmer has
to take back the produce. I personally made observations and tried to
convenience NAFED through Markfeds to ensure quality certification and final
weighment is completed at mandi level to ensure farmer is not troubled further.
We requested them to place either NAFED or StarAgri person at mandis to verify
quality and take stocks into their account. All these requests had gone
unnoticed and that shows the commitment levels of our policy makers and
implementers have for our poor farmers. Think for yourself, is it easy for a
small farmer whose knowledge is limited to cross all these hurdles and do
direct sale of produce to NAFED at MSP?
Even the better informed
farmers like me also had to undergo lot of tension and use all sorts of
contacts to reach the final destination and sometimes we sincerely feel that is
it the treatment farmers deserve after taking care of 125 crore population food
needs. The staff at APMC, Hamali unions, security, literally everyone in the
sight of the farmer and his produce tries to exploit as if everyone is favoring
him. It is disgusting to see farmers
sleeping on lots for two to three days to get their turn, whereas the Government
staffs come leisurely at 10.30 AM and conduct business at their own phase.
These are the issues
driving the farmer back to traders and they in turn buy the produce from
farmers at below MSP and sell in the name of same farmers in mandis, even get
bank payments in their names and adjust the accounts. It is shame on our part
to see the system which is hostile to farmer is very friendly with trader
turned farmer and entire supply chain till
the produce reaches the StarAgri go down is smoothly managed including
quality parameters such as moisture percentage, foreign material percentage
etc.
Just creating electronic
payment gateways and direct transfer of payments to farmer’s accounts is not
sufficient. The micro level situations impacting the farmer’s lives, its
dynamics has to be understood and address them through technology. To do this
Government needs vision with commitment not just vision.
Facts and Figures:
NAFED & the bureaucracy
is expected to allocate budgets earmarked for this operations to various states
based on some uniform logic. Often the logic shall be based on estimated
production of particular crop. Let us observe what is happening in reality by
looking at the data available.
During the year 2017, the
Ground Nut production in Gujarat was 30.45 Lakh MT, out of which NAFED procured
8.3 Lakh MT (27.2%) with MSP plus bonus.
AP is the second largest groundnut state with 8.35 Lakh MT productions,
out of which only 0.6 Lakh MT (7.2%) was procured by NAFED with MSP. It clearly indicates that injustice is done
to AP at the cost of Gujarat.
The other major procurement
happened through NAFED include 3.35 Lakh MT, 2.38 Lakh MT, 1.56 Lakh MT Red Gram
from Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra respectively and 2.43 Lakh MT of Green
Gram from Rajasthan. Look at the figures carefully, even in absolute terms the
quantities are no way close to what was procured from Gujarat. It again implies that Gujarat is favored, over
all other states including BJP ruling ones. Further probing revealed that the
preference was given to Gujarat just before the assembly elections and planned massive
procurement particularly from Saurashtra region.
What is happening to our
intellectual ability, rationale and logical thinking? Why is the administration
bending to the political pressures? Or both the systems have perfect
understanding and keeping the logic and equal justice at bay? Please do not
tell that it was happening in the same fashion for last 70 years and how do you
expect change in just four years.
Bureaucracy need
to wake up and prevail. We need to change the fabric, not just the style of
stitching with cosmetic changes.
Groundnut in
Gujarat Godowns:
Go through the above link
to understand field realities. The ground nut procured through NAFED is stored
in private godowns hired for this purpose and monitored by StarAgri. In
February, 2018 there was fire accident in one of the godowns in Rajkot district
and 28 crore worth groundnut was gutted in fire. Again during first week of
May, 2018 there was fire accident in another go down and 3 crores worth
groundnut was gutted in fire.
Both occasions Gujarat
agriculture minister had shown more attention to divert the issue by throwing
mud on Congress, by creating suspension in public minds that Congress is doing this
to tarnish the image of BJP. It’s unfortunate, the minister is keener on playing
politics, rather than allowing the officers to conduct free and fair enquiry,
establish the facts quickly to ensure these will not repeat again. Surprisingly
there is not much progress with February fire accident itself. The moment
minister throw the dung on congress face, they promptly reacted by demanding
for CBI enquiry and Government or District administration are silent on this
demand for the reasons best known to them.
Current Situation:
It is reliably learnt that
NAFED is trying to liquidate the stocks in open market through online bids,
reverse auctions etc, but not attracting many traders or processing units,
mainly due to quality issues. It was given to understand that the entire
procurement system starting with allotments to farmers, quality control,
weighment, storage and payments well organized with leak proof mechanism.
If everything is done properly as expected and
stated, from where quality issues are cropping up? Who to blame for present
situation? Who are accountable –
StarAgri or NAFED or Both?
Sporadic incidents of
godowns gutted in fire in other states and few verifications conducted by dist
collectors revealed the some inferior quality produce reached godowns under the
system influences and the magnitude of the problem is not known. Whatever may
be the magnitude of problem, once there are doubts about produce mix with
inferior lots the pricing for the same will come down? Imagine the huge losses
happening for someone’s greed. These shall be enquired thoroughly and the guilt
shall be punished.
There must be some reason
for these fire accidents mostly into NAFED godowns only. Probably the godowns
where the inferior quality produces reached; under the influence of system
nexus can be soft targets for fire accidents to engulf evidences with insurance
claims. Probably we may get to know more facts if enquiries are initiated and
conducted keeping these possible misappropriations in view.
Need of the hour:
- The purpose of Government intervention is stabilizing the prices.
Even after the procurement through NAFED or direct purchases by few
states, still not much improvement in market prices. Hence selling at this
point of time will bring down the prices further and push farmers who are
hoarding stocks into distress situation.
- Instead of selling the produce, NAFED can go for value addition
and release few quantities to market as branded product.
- The imports shall be put to end immediately and even the bilateral
commitments can be put to hold by talking to the respective countries.
- App based remote location testing of the produce procured at the
warehouses by Central Monitoring agencies of NAFED during the procurement
so that any abnormal variations in qualities can be immediately addressed
instead of post analysis during the time of sale.
- Government should setup a authority to explore new ways of utilizing pulses so that the increased production can be consumed. Today Deoiled cakes are being sold at Rs 30/- per kg. Can some pulses substitute the dairy and poultry food?? .This will help the dairy and the poultry industry and also build demand
- Post offices should be used to sell the pulses (whole pulses) at
reasonable rates with the post offices being given incentive. Items like
Bengal Gram are the staple food in north and are in excess production some
times. Similar is the case with other whole pulses like Green Gram which
are popular in south.
- A central monitoring authority which has commodity experts from renowned
commodity exchanges should monitor the procurement for its price trends
and guide NAFED for immediate decisions in disposing the stock instead of
the “thumb rule “ criteria of following the “ Mandi prices” which is
fraught with many anomalies and
hinders in taking rational pricing decisions during sale. Timely sale
results in reduction of storage charges, preventing deterioration of
quality of stocks.
- Making mandatory presence of all the Agricultural College students
during the procurement as a part of their curriculum so that they add
value to the process and also monitor it. If Doctors can do mandatory
practice in rural areas why cannot Agri graduates.
- Identify and export the excess quantities by giving the deficit as
export incentive so that the local market sentiments will improve.
- Improve the cash circulation particularly in rural areas so that
traders will reenter the markets and buy stocks with futuristic price
raise expectations.
- Reaching out to the customers and ensuring that they stock enough
pulses at household level will increase consumption and fresh demand will
be created. Nutrition value of family will improve.
- Reduce some quantity of rice in PDS for BPL families and same
subsidy give to them by replacing pulses with rice. This strategy will
ensure balance diet and proper food basket to poor people.
- To begin with start supplying pulses; sugar etc in all government
offices to staff on loan basis with monthly installments based recovery.
The same can be extended to organized public/private sectors also. Engage channel partners with open
bidding to handle entire supply chain. I am sure very competitive bids
will come due to sheer size and assured payments as they are linked to
salaries.
- Our objective is to create, sustain the markets to ensure proper
incomes to our farmers. We can cover many others under this plan.
India Looking for
Dynamic and Visionary Political Leadership:
Very soon we are going to
celebrate our 72nd Independence Day on 15.08.2018. There is no point in wasting time and indulge
in political mudslinging. One will say 70 years of legacy, dynasty etc and
other will question present policies, indiscriminate imports.
Understand the
issues, act with clarity, crack it and built new India which is more inclusive.
B Guruva Reddy-9866889246
grbonthu@gmail.com
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