Thousands of MP farmers pushed to brink as their procured grains not found to meet FCI standards

Subsequently, a team of FCI officials visited MP to check the coarse grain samples and found them far below the FCI’s acceptable procurement standards, following which they refused to grant any relaxations in procurement norms. The MP government, in turn, asked the district administration across the state to stick to procuring grains as per the FCI-stipuated standards. Several districts like Bhind, which had by then procured 2,000 metric tonnes of non-FAQ bajra, then stopped procurement, even as other districts continued with it.

The MP government’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department procured 39,936 metric tonnes of coarse grains in 2021-22 from nearly 10,000 farmers, of which at least 9,228 metric tonnes were rejected until January 31. The government has however processed the payment of only Rs 85 crore for 7,796 farmers so far. For procurement, the government had fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for jowar at Rs 2,738 per quintal as against the market rate of Rs 1,500, and Rs 2,250 for bajra as compared to the market rate of Rs 1,600.

Several districts like Gwalior continued with the procurement exercise, procuring a total of 24,000 metric tonnes of jowar and 6,000 metric tonnes of bajra — the highest in the state. However, after 4,000 metric tonnes of jowar and 3,500 metric tonnes of bajra were found “unfit for procurement” and rejected, the Gwalior administration has also set out to return the produce to the farmers.

The coarse grains like jowar and bajra are produced in some pockets of MP, with the northern districts of Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Datia and Sheopur being their largest producer, followed by districts like Sehore, Harda, Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad.

“We did not stop the procurement as the genuine farmer whose grains are fit for procurement would also have suffered. Nearly 90 per cent of farmers whose stocks were below acceptable norms have taken their stocks back, while the stocks of the remaining ones could be auctioned if the need arises,” said Gwalior collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh.

In Sehore district, around 5,000 quintals of non-FAQ Jowar was procured at a few procurement centres. This left over 250 farmers struggling in their efforts to get their dues cleared after the government refused to lift non-FAQ stock or pay such farmers.

Many farmers, such as Shankar Jat from Nasrullaganj in Sehore district, who have shifted to the farming of jowar and bajra instead of their earlier staple crop of soybean, have been thus pushed to the brink. “Our soybean crop was damaged in 2020 with untimely rains and even a year later we have not received payment for it under ‘fasal bima’ (crop insurance). Then last year, the government encouraged us to sow jowar and bajra instead of soybean and now we are suffering because the government’s surveyors at the procurement centres did not do their jobs properly,” he lamented.

Jat and his three other family members had sold 100 quintals of jowar, amounting to Rs 2.70 lakh, at the procurement centre, but are yet to get their payments. He along with a delegation of 40 other farmers from the Swaraj Sanghatan, a farmers’ collective, met Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on January 20 for redressal of their grievances on the issue.

After their meeting, the Swaraj Sanghatan’s state president Gajendra Jat said they were assured by the CM that the government will ensure that the farmers get their dues as per the MSP rates.

The government has since decided to auction the non-FAQ coarse grain stocks lying in warehouses in order to clear the farmers’ dues. The Sehore district administration is set to auction 259 quintal jowar in open market, 45 days after it had procured it from farmers. Its first tender floated on January 25, however, did not find any takers, forcing it to call for bids again on February 3.

Meanwhile, Sehore collector Chandra Mohan Thakur has ordered a probe to ascertain how non-FAQ grain stocks were accepted at various procurement centres. “We will conduct an internal inquiry to understand what exactly went wrong. The non-FAQ stock was procured only at a few centres,” he said.

The Gwalior administration has registered three FIRs including two cases against traders and an FIR against a warehouse manager, who was found stocking grains not procured at the government centres.

But these measures seem to be of little consolation for farmers like Jat, who have been waiting for their dues to be settled by the government. To protest against non-clearance of their dues, a section of the aggrieved farmers have even called for a march to the Vidhan Sabha in the coming days.