Performance analysis of price support scheme for pulses in Karnataka

The market price for agricultural produce many times tends to be unstable and volatile which may result into undue losses to the growers and discourage adoption of the modern technology and required inputs. Due to delay in procurement, most of the benefit goes to traders under the guise of farmers. Keeping this in view, a study was undertaken with objective to evaluate the performance of the process of procurement of pulses under different procurement agencies through PSS (Price Support Scheme) in Karnataka. The data collected pertained to the year 2017–18 for procurement of redgram and greengram in Kalyan Karnataka region. Primary data were collected from 60 sample farmers and 15 different procurement agencies through personal interview method using pre-tested schedules. The results revealed that the farmers who sold their produce to PSS procurement centres realized higher benefits than selling it in open market. Thus the operation of procurement centres during the period of fall in the market price below MSP level was justified. It was also observed that PSS procurement had price advantage to both redgram farmers and greengram farmers when compared to open market sales. The study concluded that procurement through FPOs was more efficient compared to PACS due to availability and accessibility of infrastructures, manpower and efficient management. The suggested policy options are i) need of financial support for creating and upgrading the infrastructure facility for storage of pulses at grass root level, ii) need for expansion of FPOs in fast track mode with financial and technical support for improvement in procurement of food grains at MSP and iii) fixing the limit of procurement from each farmer based on the area and yield obtained from crop survey report rather than limiting the quantity arbitrarily.