Govt says it has 'no' funds to buy areca nut from farmers

The state government has no adequate funds to purchase areca nut from the growers under the market intervention scheme (MIS) announced by the Centre, said Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra.

Addressing journalists in Bengaluru on Monday, Jayachandra said the state government needs Rs 1,688 crore to purchase areca nut from farmers through MIS. The government has only Rs 130 crore under the scheme. The Centre has not clarified whether it will extend any financial assistance. The state government, however, will soon devise a method to purchase areca nut from farmers, he added.

The Centre has fixed Rs 25,100 per quintal for white (chali) variety and Rs 27,000 per quintal for the red variety. The MIS will be in force between December 7 and 31, 2016.
Jayachandra said the government has purchased 7.37 lakh quintals of onion from 11,452 farmers under the MIS in the last 37 days, spending Rs 57.49 crore. The government could earn only Rs eight crore by selling the onions it had purchased. This had resulted in an additional financial burden of Rs 48.96 crore on the government, which is yet to dispose 1.20 lakh quintals of onion.

The minister accused the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) of not purchasing copra from farmers at the rate fixed by the Centre. The NAFED officials are hand in glove with middlemen, he charged.