Possibility of buying 27 lakh tonnes of gram for central buffer stock
21-Mar-2025 12:49 PM
New Delhi. The Central Government has planned to buy a total of 27 lakh tonnes of gram at the national level during the current Rabi season of 2024-25 to raise the level of its buffer stock of pulses.
According to senior official sources, the government has already approved the purchase of 21.60 lakh tonnes of gram for various states, while now the proposal to buy 5.46 lakh tonnes from Rajasthan is being considered and it will also be approved soon.
In this way, a total of more than 27 lakh tonnes of gram will be allowed for government purchase and this will provide great relief to the farmers.
Last year, the domestic market price of gram jumped well above the Minimum Support Price (MSP), due to which the government could not get much success in its purchase.
But due to record imports, now its price has come down to below the Minimum Support Price, while the supply of new domestic crop has also started gaining momentum.
The central government has increased the MSP of gram by Rs 210 from Rs 5440 per quintal for the 2023-24 season to Rs 5650 per quintal for the 2024-25 season, while its price has come down to Rs 5000-5500 per quintal in many mandis. Prices are likely to soften further due to the strong arrival of the new crop.
It is worth mentioning that the central government has already approved the purchase of about 32 lakh tonnes of pulses for the current Rabi season, which includes 21.64 lakh tonnes of gram, 9.40 lakh tonnes of lentils, 90,108 tonnes of urad and 13,575 tonnes of moong.
The purchase of gram has already started in Telangana. Most productive states- Madhya Pradesh has been given approval for purchase of 7.28 lakh tonnes, Maharashtra 7.08 lakh tonnes,
Gujarat 2.66 lakh tonnes, Uttar Pradesh 1.96 lakh tonnes, Karnataka 96,498 tonnes, Andhra Pradesh 96,498 tonnes, Andhra Pradesh 74,945 tonnes,
Telangana 37,083 tonnes, Chhattisgarh 52,738 tonnes and Haryana 2718 tonnes of gram. Soon, approval for purchase of 5.46 lakh tonnes in Rajasthan will also be included in this.