Flaws in Maharashtra’s tur procurement exposed

When the process of the procurement of agricultural outputs becomes a political strategy, it is difficult to pay justice to the act of procurement.

The Indian state of Maharashtra has gone through such a situation which helps them to learn the actual meaning of the aforementioned statement.

Recently, in order to avoid the ire of farmers who witnessed a fall in prize of tur due to the occurrence of the unusual phenomenon of bumber crop, the Maharashtra government procured a huge quantity of the aforesaid crop from the farmers giving at least 1.5 times more money than the products actual market price.

Expert says that it was the fear of farmer ire that prompted the government to perform such an act.

A latest report presented before the state assembly indicates that at least ninety-five percent of the total quantity of tur procured from the farmers between December (2016) to June (2017) has not been processed yet.

Tur only has a small shelf life of six months to one year. This means that majority of these unprocessed tur which is presently with the government will have to be thrown away. If such an act is done, it will inflict huge injury on the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board which has taken huge loans for the process of the procurement and sales of tur.

Vignesh. S. G

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