Government’s decision to cap summer moong (green gram) procurement at just 25 per cent of registered production has triggered widespread resentment among farmers. Running from July 1 to August 10, the current procurement drive offers a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 8,768 per quintal. However, under the newly implemented rules, the remaining 75 per cent of the yield must be sold in the open market, causing a sharp drop in actual government intake compared to previous years. Ground reports indicate drastic impacts on individual off-takes; for instance, a farmer who successfully sold 500 quintals to the government last season is being restricted to just 122 quintals this year. Steep losses and storage fears panic producers: Local cultivators face a double whammy of low open-market prices and high crop vulnerability. While the government-fixed MSP stands at Rs 8,768, traders in local mandis are offering only Rs 6,000 to Rs 6,500 per quintal, forcing farmers to bear a loss of over Rs 2,000 per quintal on the bulk of their harvest. Beyond immediate financial losses, farmers are panicking over logistics, citing a total lack of specialised storage infrastructure. Moong is highly susceptible to moisture damage and spoilage during the monsoon season, leaving growers with no choice but to sell off their remaining 75 per cent stock immediately at throwaway market rates.

 

Administration confirms new cap is linked to land allocation rules: When questioned about the sudden policy shift, senior agricultural authorities confirmed that the reduction is a direct outcome of amended statutory guidelines. Suman Prasad, Deputy Director of the Agriculture Department for Bhopal District, who also serves as the Joint Director In-charge of Bhopal Division, verified that the new procurement rules dictate that only 25 per cent of the total registered yield per hectare can be legally purchased at support prices. While acknowledging that overall government procurement will be similar to last year for the Bhopal district because the district has seen high production this year, last year approximately 2,000 hectares of moong were produced, while this year approximately 4,000 hectares have been sown with the crop, out of which 3,872 hectares are registered for procurement. 1,748 farmers have made registrations. It is expected that approximately 1,064 metric tonnes of total procurement will be done in this season from Bhopal. However, administrative officials maintained that the department is strictly bound to execute the revised per-hectare yield limits established for the current financial year. She also mentioned that one of the reasons behind this is that the government is trying to discourage the production of summer moong as a crop, considering the health risk attached to it.