NABARANGPUR:The district administration will open three purchase centres for maize at Raighar, Umerkote and Jharigam from December 29.
Regulated Market Committee (RMC) Chairman, Gavali Parag Harshad said RMC would use the web portal of NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd, a leading exchange for daily electronic trading of agricultural commodities, in all the three purchase centres for online trading of maize, which will benefit the farmers. The crop would be sold through auction method. This year, maize was cultivated in 38,000 hectares (ha) of land in comparison to last year’s 62,000 ha. The cultivation area came down in wake of procurement issues last year. The minimum support price (MSP) of maize has been fixed at `1325 per quintal by the Government. In the first phase, 10,000 tonnes of maize will be procured. The stock will be auctioned online by NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd and the sale amount will be credited to bank account of the farmer concerned immediately after the purchase.
Apparently, the spot exchange provides the farmers across the country an option to sell their produce to a trader based at any place using its facility. Last year, it had identified Umerkote market for starting the pilot trading facility in maize.