Farmers forced to sell moong below MSP

CHANDIGARH: With the highest-ever area under moong (green gram) this year in the state three times more than last year, the farmers are left in a lurch and forced to sell it below the minimum support price (MSP) to the private players as the AAP-led Punjab government has not purchased a single grain of moong this year so far.

As last year with a lot of hype and fanfare, it announced that it will purchase this pulse as part of the state’s crop diversification plan and it did as well.

Sources in the agriculture department said that this year moong was sown in 67,000 hectares across the state which is the highest ever. Last year it was only in 23,000 hectares, thus three times more than last season as this crop is sowed between paddy and wheat.

While the purchase season of moong began on the end of May or June 1 and will end on July 31 this year, only 26,966 metric tonnes (MT) of legumes has arrived in the mandis (grain markets) across the state and all of it has been bought below the minimum support price (MSP) by private players. They purchased the produce between Rs 7,000 and Rs 8,000 per quintal while the MSP announced by the union government is Rs 8,555 per quintal.