Why is the Process of Yield Procurement Important — Understanding the Haryana Chapter!

The National lockdown of 2020 most adversely affected the lives of many poor and low-income families who lack sufficient money for buying food. The plight of migrants also has been visible with the regular media reports showing their difficulties in reaching home with immediate help during this lockdown. Most of these families were earning food based on daily income through labour. In the absence of daily earning, they are unable to arrange meals for themselves. On the other hand, the farmers in Haryana were facing immense pressure as the lockdown clashed with the harvesting season. If the farmers don’t get enough opportunity to sell their produce, the loss for the farmer will be of unprecedented scale. The government is facing multiple challenges of massive scale while trying to control the situation around COVID crisis. Right from the farmers to migrants in distress, administrations have to cater to their needs and demands. In my previous article, I had elaborated on how the government is combating covid19. In this article, I will elaborate on how the State Government has devised a strategy for ensuring food security for citizens by taking care of its farmers’ produce.

Haryana’s Agricultural Landscape

Agriculture is the backbone of Haryana’s economy with 83 per cent area being cultivable of which 95 per cent area is net sown area. In Haryana, 3.14 million families are dependent on agriculture for livelihood. According to the Haryana Economic Survey 2019–20, agriculture is estimated to contribute 16% to the state economy. The number will rise as COVID crisis has hit the Manufacturing and Service sector adversely. On top of this, due to good rainfall and favourable long winter, record wheat is going to get harvested this year. According to the official estimates, the harvest will be six per cent larger as compared to the last year. The figures indicate a good yield and income to the farmer. But as mentioned earlier, the harvesting season has clashed with the lockdown. In such times of crisis, the involvement of the State becomes crucial. To solve this, the Hon’ble CM of Haryana announced the procurement of all the yield from the farmer at Minimum Support Price (MSP). The MSP for wheat is Rs 1925 per ton and Rs 4425 per quintal for Mustard. Due to ongoing lockdown, no private player is involved in the procurement, which means only the State government will carry the procurement which automatically increases the scale of the procurement.

Farmers harvesting the yield amidst the lockdown

The Procurement Process

1. Extensive use of Technology and data: In COVID crisis it is important to follow social distancing norms and avoid crowding at any public place. The government of Haryana decided to use technology and data to avoid crowding while carrying out a seamless procurement process. Earlier the government had launched Meri Fasal Mera Byora (MFMB) Scheme intending to provide all the Agriculture schemes and incentives to farmers under a single umbrella — the scheme asks farmers details including the sown area and crop. The government encouraged farmers to register under the scheme by carrying out intensive IEC and educating the masses about the benefits of the scheme. The government collected data of around 12 lakh farmers out of 15.5 lakh farmers in Haryana. This allowed the government to get a clear picture on farms with exact details of crops sown by farmers and the extent to which procurement is needed. To avoid crowding by farmers, it was decided that daily around 50–100 farmers or according to the capacity of Mandi, who is registered under the MFMB, will receive a text message from the Market Committee. This message will contain the date on which the farmer is supposed to arrive at the Mandi. With the help of the same message, farmers can get the gate pass which is a prerequisite for the procurement. Per village, One Common Service Centre (CSC)/Atal Seva Kendra is allowed to issue gate passes to farmers based on this text message.]
2. Expansion of the Capacity: From the data, it is clear that the scale of procurement was larger than previous years and thus the first step of expansion of the procurement capacity was carried out. The Haryana government expanded the capacity from 450 purchasing centres to 2000+ centres by opening 140 mustard purchasing centres (as mostly mustard is produced in southern Haryana) and 2000 wheat procurement centres. Other precautions such as demarking for social distancing across all procurement centres was carried out, safety rules and regulations were conveyed to every officer, duty staff and the farmer involved in the procurement process. The procurement process started when the market committees were set and completely ready for operation.
3. The workflow of Farm procurement: As mentioned earlier when a farmer receives texts from the Mandi, he/she will use the same text to generate gate pass, the next day the farmer will come to Madi with the same gate pass and will weigh his/her farmer. The weight will then get marked on Gate pass. Adatis (Private licenced agents by the government) then will take the yield in their custody. Based on weight and MSP, the said amount will then get transferred to the farmer’s bank account within a few days. The yield procured from the farmer is then cleaned and packed in gunny bags, which are then transported to warehouses of Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED).
4. The labour conundrum: The cleaning, packing and transportation is a labour-intensive task. It was difficult to get labour during the lockdown. In such a scenario, the district administration at Charkhi Dadri decided to employ those who need jobs. People who registered for work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) were onboarded after full health check-ups to minimize the spread of covid19. Those who were found fit were allowed to work in Mandi, with their stay and food arrangements made in the Mandi itself. The workers were prohibited to go in public places as a safety measure. In this way, labour problems could be resolved by creating job opportunities for those who needed work.

MGNREGA workers in action

The limitations

The district administration observed that people were finding loopholes in the system and used it for their benefit. Few people bribed the person responsible for sending SMSs and persuaded him/her to send messages to their relatives. This fuelled anger amongst farmers. To resolve this, the district administration at Charkhi Dadri started releasing the list of farmers in alphabetical order and published it in the media as well. This proved to be a successful move as it hampered the corruption, and the media was effectively used to publish State farmer helpline numbers for farmers in distress.

In a few cases, there was a mismatch in data and the actual farmer produce. In such cases for the data to be corrected and verified, one had to wait for three to four days. The Patwaris were asked to furnish reports of the verification process within 24 hours, which further streamlined the process by reducing the overall wait time of the farmers to only 24 hours instead of 48. It was also found that few private agents were purchasing the yield below the MSP as the farmers were in debt from the same private agents. To curb this, surprise raids were carried out and legal actions were taken against the culprits.

The economic relief: Ensuring harvest gets converted into hope

Way Forward

As of now, Charkhi Dadri which is the smallest district in Haryana has procured 8.5 Lakh quantiles of mustard and 7.2 quantiles of wheat, thereby making a total payment of 15 Crore to the farmers. The approach will make sure enough money is in the hands of farmers, enough food in plates of the poor and will also pump in the demand in the economy. For a state like Haryana where agriculture employs 45 per cent of its population and has a 15% share of GDP, the agriculture stimulus provided by the government is good hope for its economic prospects. The procurement will be enough for feeding the country for a year. This is the main reason we are absent in the World Food Programme’s list of Countries which are in danger of starvation. The procurement has been able to achieve three things in one go Jobs — Food Security and Farm Livelihoods.