The Gujarat Government has launched online registration of farmers for the procurement of groundnut and soybean for the current season. The State has announced it will procure nearly a million metric tonnes of groundnut, and 91,343 MT of soybean, at an estimated value of ₹6,784 crore.
According to the announcement, farmers will be paid ₹6,364 crore for groundnuts and ₹420 crore for soybeans. The State is also likely to procure green gram and urad dal (black lentil) from farmers.
A meeting was held in the State capital on Sunday, where procurement rates were finalised for various crops and the process of registration was launched.
Groundnut will be purchased at ₹6,377 per quintal, green gram will be purchased at ₹8,558 per quintal, urad dal at ₹6,950 per quintal, and soybean at ₹4,600 per quintal.
“We have fixed the procurement prices and started the process,” Gujarat’s Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel said, adding that procurement will begin from October 21.
The move is being seen as an initiative to help farmers ahead of the Lok Sabha polls as large quantities of crops will be procured by the State to benefit nearly 3.5 lakh farmers from across Gujarat.
The government has set up 160 procurement centres for groundnut, 105 procurement centres for urad dal, 97 for soybeans, and 73 procurement centres for green gram.
Mr. Patel said that the farmers will realise supportive rates for their crops so that they would not have to sell them at discounted prices in the open market.
