DHENKANAL: In order to prevent distress sale of oil seeds and pulses, the Odisha State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd (Markfed) for the first time will purchase cash crops from farmers through mandis this year. This was announced by Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Agriculture Department S Garg after a review meeting here on Wednesday.
The Secretary also reviewed various farming activities including procurement of pulses and oil seeds like black gram, green gram and groundnut in the district. He also asked the district level agriculture officials to create awareness on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for oil seeds and pulses.As per reports, groundnut has been grown over 14,000 hectares (ha) in eight blocks of the district, while other oil seeds have been cultivated in 51,280 ha.
The district agriculture wing has decided to open atleast 21 mandis to procure the cash crops from farmers. Though harvesting of the crops has already started, the procurement will begin from May 25, said District Agriculture Officer Gunanidhi Behera.
Meanwhile, farmers have urged the Agriculture department to announce the MSP for oil seeds separately as soon as possible. However, sources said the agriculture department has fixed MSP at `5,575 per quintal for green gram, `5,400 for black gram and `4,450 for groundnut. But groundnut is being sold at `4500 -`5000 in market.