Market price uncontrolled due to limited stock of gram with NAFED

28-May-2024 07:56 PM

New Delhi . The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), a subordinate agency of the Union Agriculture Ministry, has a rule to have a buffer stock of at least 10 lakh tonnes of gram, but now the stock with it has come down to below this.

It is noteworthy that under the Price Support Scheme (PSS), about 26 lakh tonnes of gram was purchased by NAFED in 2022 and about 23 lakh tonnes in 2023, due to which its buffer stock had increased significantly.

Later, vigorous efforts were made to reduce it and the stock of gram was reduced through supply under various welfare schemes, sale to states and sale in the open market etc. Apart from this, gram was also supplied to government agencies for Bharat brand pulses. 

The government was hopeful that like the last two years, this time too it would be successful in purchasing large quantities of gram from farmers at Minimum Support Price (MSP) and then increasing the buffer stock. But this is not happening.

This time the MSP of gram has been fixed at Rs 5440 per quintal, whereas in major producing states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, its price has increased by about 35 percent i.e. Rs 7200-7300 per quintal. Due to this, NAFED purchases have got stuck.

Since the previous stock with NAFED is less and there is no vigorous purchase of new material, the gram market is gradually becoming uncontrolled.

The government is making every possible effort to curb the rise in prices and in this sequence, it has made the import of desi gram duty free till 31 October 2024, but it has not yielded any meaningful results, the price of which was earlier Rs 5500. Reaching Rs 6000 per quintal was considered a big deal, but now Rs 7000 per quintal seems to be the base point.