Procurement of organic maize begins, 80 MT purchased so far
The procurement of organic maize crop grown through natural farming under the Rajiv Gandhi Natural Farming Start-up Scheme began in Dharampur in Solan district from October 25. This is the first such endeavour being undertaken in the state, where the maize would be ground and sold through the civil supplies depots to the public.
Yograj Chauhan, project director, Agricultural Technology Management Agency, Solan, said as per the instructions of the state government, the procurement of maize crop grown under natural farming had begun in the entire state from Friday.
It will be done under the Rajiv Gandhi Start-up Scheme. The maize crop will be purchased from farmers at a rate of Rs 3,000 per quintal by the Agriculture Department, and it will be handed over to the HP Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department for making payment to the farmers. The total purchase limit from a farmer has been fixed at 20 quintals. The purchased maize will be stored in the godowns of Himachal Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation. The procurement is being made in nine of the 12 districts except Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti though it was yet to begun in Shimla, Chamba and Kullu.
A time-frame has been devised for its procurement in various districts.
The Agriculture Department has selected 24 wholesale centres of the HP State Civil Supplies Corporation as collection centres for maize. The corporation will procure maize from the collection centres and get it grinded in the flour mills.
Fourteen flour mills have been identified for the purpose across the state. The grinded flour will be packed by the flour mills in packs of 1 kg and 5 kg and its sample will be shared with the corporation by the agriculture department. The maize will be purchased back by the corporation from the flour mills for further sale. It will be sold through the fair price shops at the market rate as per the demand.
In Solan district, three flour mills have been identified. They comprise Deepak Industries at Chambaghat, Approva Food Processing at Katal Ka Bag village in Dharampur block and Sai Agro Mill at Nalagarh. The procurement work began from the storage centres located at Arki, Dharampur, Nalagarh and Solan in the district.
The project director said under the scheme, the purchase price of wheat grown through natural farming had been fixed at Rs 4,000 per quintal.
The Rajiv Gandhi Natural Farming Start-up Scheme was announced by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in the Budget for the financial year 2024-25 to promote self-employment through natural farming and to increase the income of farmers.
Under the scheme, it has been decided to purchase wheat at a minimum support price of Rs 40 per kg and maize at Rs 30 per kg to encourage unemployed youth to adopt natural farming. This scheme will prove successful in increasing the income of farmers adopting natural farming by making them safe.
As much as 80 metric tonnes (MT) of maize has been procured till Monday. As many as 423 farmers have been identified for this purpose across the state.
