Meager Arrivals of Mustard at Government Procurement Centers in Haryana

31-Mar-2026 03:54 PM

Hisar: Although the price of mustard in Haryana's open wholesale markets has dipped slightly below the Minimum Support Price (MSP), farmers continue to show a greater inclination toward selling their produce to traders and stockists rather than to government agencies.

Private buyers offer immediate payment for the mustard. Farmers have complained that the arrangements at government procurement centers are inadequate, and several technical glitches have also been observed.

Notably, the Central Government has fixed the MSP for mustard at ₹6,200 per quintal for the 2025-26 Rabi season; however, in various markets across Haryana, the price for mustard of average quality has currently settled between ₹5,300 and ₹5,800 per quintal.

Formal government procurement of mustard commenced in the state on March 28, yet farmers are prioritizing traders for the sale of their produce. Consequently, the inflow of produce at government procurement centers remains very low.

Given this situation, the opposition has seized the opportunity to attack the state government. It has alleged that the government's procurement scheme is fundamentally flawed, noting that the procurement centers lack both a robust system for purchasing and concrete arrangements to ensure timely payments to farmers. Government procurement of wheat is scheduled to commence tomorrow—April 1, 2026.

For this year, Haryana has set a procurement target of approximately 1.3 million tonnes of mustard; of this, 25 percent is to be procured by central agencies, while the remaining 75 percent is to be procured by state-level agencies. However, in light of the prevailing circumstances, achieving this target appears to be a daunting task.