Nagpur: Ansar Khan of Bori Izaar village in Yavatmal district is sitting on 16 quintals of soyabean he reaped last season. Khan did not sell the produce hoping that the rates would improve eventually.
It’s sowing time again for the fresh season and government has also hiked the MSP for Kharif crops last week. It has been fixed at Rs4,892 a quintal for soyabean which is the second important crop after cotton in Vidarbha.
Last year it was ₹4,600 a quintal. However, if farmers are hoping for rates to improve, the open markets prices for soyabean are even lower than the MSP of 2023, say sources.
It’s high time that the produce is sold, says Khan, but it’s barely fetching Rs4,450 a quintal.
At Jalka, also in Yavatmal, Nitin Khadse too has close to 15 quintals of soyabean, He is not getting ₹4,500 a quintal.
Khan and Khadse are among the number of farmers who have held on to the soyabean produce. A section of farmers recently sold at a lower rate to raise money for sowing expenses.
Many have sold only recently so that they could raise money for the fresh season. Soyabean has left them bleeding, said Manish Jadhav an activist in Yavatmal.
MSP is the basic least price offered by the government through its market intervention system. If rates of a farm produce fall below MSP, the government starts procurement. Since it buys at the MSP, it helps the open market prices improve too. There was no MSP procurement last year, though the rates of soyabean remained below the level for most of the time, said farmers.
“The government should proactively procure at MSP. The global rates for soya de-oiled cake used in the poultry industry are low. Even maize which is used as an alternative is cheaper. This means soyabean rates may remains bearish. The government needs to intervene,” said Vijay Jawandhia a veteran activist, adding, “Cotton rates are between the old and new MSP.”
Akola’s Ganesh Nanote harvested the stock last September till February 2024 as he needed money to pay off a debt. He sold it a couple of hundreds below MSP. Soon after the harvest, the rates were marginally above MSP. It touched ₹50,00 for a brief spell and remained below MSP after that, he says.
Source: Times of India
