Mustard Farmers in Distress as MSP Prices Drop

The government is yet to start buying the mustard while private companies are buying it at a range of Rs 4,600 to Rs 5,000 per quintal.

Farmers have been requesting the government to begin the procurement process so that they can sell their produce at the MSP. JP Dalal, the minister of agriculture, stated today in Bhiwani that the government would begin buying mustard on March 28.

According to Ajay Kumar, a farmer from Khera village in the Indri block, private buyers purchased mustard in 2022 for between Rs 6,000 and Rs 6,600 per quintal, up from Rs 5,000 and Rs 5,500 in 2021. "In 2021, I sold mustard for Rs 8,000 per quintal during the off-season. The season has not been good,” he declared.

"Mustard's MSP is Rs 5,450 per quintal, but farmers are losing money because it is typically purchased for between Rs 4,600 and Rs 5,000 per quintal. Every day that goes by, the procurement rates are getting cheaper,” according to farmer Nawab Singh.

Another farmer, Jai Singh, claimed that because government procurement has not yet begun, private companies are pressuring farmers to sell their produce for dirt-cheap prices.

The freezing temperatures and ground frost during the peak winter season in January have caused extensive damage to the crop, causing the average yield to come down drastically; as per the initial harvest trends. The cold season hit the crop when the crop was at the flowering stage, leading to a decline in yield.

The regions of Hisar, Bhiwani, Rewari, Mahendragarh, and Rohtak are major mustard-growing districts, having over 6.50 lakh hectares of land grown under them. The government has set the mustard production target at 13.65 lakh tonnes, and an average yield of 2,100 kg per hectare which is about 8.5 quintals per acre.

Hoshiyar Singh, a farmer in the Balsamand region's Kirtan village, which had below-freezing temperatures in January, barely harvested one quintal of mustard from three acres. In the past, I would often collect seven to nine quintals per acre. The yield has been low this year," he remarked.

At Chaudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University, Dr. Ram Avtar, a mustard breeder scientist, said they had undertaken a survey and had anticipated a decrease in the per-acre yield this season. The crop planted on the unirrigated ground next to Rajasthan in the districts of Hisar, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, and Rewari was the most severely affected, he claimed.