Prior registration must for farmers bringing produce from outside for procurement: Hry govt official

Asked to comment on the Karnal incident, Das said "those who are coming with basmati, we are not stopping them because the government does not have to purchase that". "But if you look at it, when we are telling farmers in Karnal and elsewhere that we will call them by sending SMS and only then they have to come to mandis with the produce, how can we allow farmers from outside to come and sell at procurement price (without registration on portal).

Prior registration on a Haryana government portal is a must for farmers from outside the state bringing their produce for procurement in government-run 'mandis', a senior state government official said on Tuesday. In the wake of reports that some farmers from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh were not allowed to sell their paddy crop at government-run 'mandis' in Karnal district a few days ago, the official said there is no bar, but they will have to register themselves on a portal and then wait for a message before they are called.

Notably, the farmers have to register on "Meri Fasal Mera Byora" portal uploading their details and then every registered farmer receives an SMS when they have to bring their produce. The official, however, said that registration is mandatory for farmers looking to sell non-basmati varieties of rice.

"This time, we have decided that from October 5 onwards the outside farmers can also register and then we will also give them a schedule and call them," Additional Chief Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, P K Das told PTI over the phone. Asked to comment on the Karnal incident, Das said "those who are coming with basmati, we are not stopping them because the government does not have to purchase that".

"But if you look at it, when we are telling farmers in Karnal and elsewhere that we will call them by sending SMS and only then they have to come to mandis with the produce, how can we allow farmers from outside to come and sell at procurement price (without registration on portal). "If a farmer from outside the state goes to some miller directly for a private transaction, we have no objection. But for the paddy variety which the government purchases at MSP, what we are saying that we will do procurement, but farmers will have to come through the system,” he said.

Giving an example, he said if any mandi has a capacity to handle 4,000 tonnes and if 14,000 tonnes of crop arrives there because farmers are allowed to come without any registration “then there will be complaints that we are not handling it well and it is taking days to clear the mandis". "We have a better system in place whereby each and every farmer is registered, he is mapped," the official said.

"When we have put a system for Haryana's farmers, we cannot give latitude to others,” he said. Replying to a question, Das said that after the passage of the three agriculture-related bills, the existing mandi system and MSP mechanism will continue as before.

"We will be procuring in government mandis as earlier. So, those who are going to sell to government mandis will come there. We procure paddy through the Arhitiyas (commission agents) and we pay them their commission, so there is no loss to Arhitiyas as far as the procurement quantity goes," he said. Farmer gets the MSP which is the highest available in the market, Das added. "As far as the farmer goes, even in the new law, MSP is the highest price available in the market, there is no loss to him. And if there is a better price available outside, the farmer gains if he goes there,” he said.

On some farmers alleging delay in paddy procurement in couple of the four districts, where it started four days earlier than scheduled date of October 1, he said this year in four districts Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal, some farmers brought their paddy produce to the mandi early. "We have a registration system on the portal on which they register and are given a schedule to come to mandis. But some came before time and without invitation.

"Since they had arrived we decided let's clear the mandis by taking care of these," the official said. So, in these four districts, paddy procurement operations started from September 27 and from today operations for crop procurement have started in all the districts, he said, adding the crop procurement was going on smoothly. Notably, next month, the state government will also start procurement of moong, bajra and maize.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)