Farmers Movement Archive

Procurement woes for jowar, bajra farmers in Chambal

Bhopal: There seems to be no end to rural distress as now jowar (sorgham) and bajra (pearl millet) farmers in Gwalior Chambal region are facing a huge crisis of non-payment after procurement of crops. An estimated over Rs 100 crore payments have been pending.Procurement of the two grains started from November and continued till December 31. For jowar, 1586 farmers were registered, while for bajra the number was 962. There were 2244 farmers registered for paddy procurement.Besides Gwalior, cultivation of jowar and bajra is also done in the districts of Bhind and Morena in Chambal division. Farmers in these districts are also complaining of irregularities both in the procurement as well as delay in payments.Large number of paddy farmers continue to bring their yield in tractor trolleys, but the procurement has been stopped, they alleged. Premchand Upreti, state vice president of Bhartiya Kisan Union said, “The farmers need money but their payments are being inordinately delayed “. Even the procurement of paddy has stopped, he said.Girdharilal Sharma, the CEO of District Cooperative Bank,Gwalior told the local media that besides jowar and bajra, Rs 231 crore worth paddy was also procured. The electronic payment orders of Rs 113 crore were released but the payment of Rs 94 crore could not be done. He said that maximum payment of jowar and bajra farmers was pending”. Both bajra and jowar are consumed a lot in rural India and are considered as coarse grain.

The Times of India

2022-01-03

Bhopal