Chandigarh, June 11- As soon as the Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal, announced relief to the sunflower farmers by giving interim procurement price by Rs. 1000 per quintal under Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana, a sudden influx of sunflower crop in large quantities was witnessed at the Shahbad grain market of Kurukshetra District, Haryana.

While this announcement has given great relief to the farmers by bridging the gap of minimum support price (MSP) on one hand, on the other hand it has also exposed the tall claims of the Punjab government being farmer friendly.

It is worth mentioning that Kurukshetra district of Haryana has the highest production of sunflower and its main procurement centre is Shahbad Mandi. Apart from this, sunflower purchase centres have also been set up in eight mandis of Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panchkula districts.

With the efforts of the Chief Minister, Hafed has started procurement of sunflower crops for the first time and has announced to remain till the procurement process is completed in the mandis.

The Haryana government has decided to ensure procurement through Hafed, so that the farmers can get a fair price for their crop.

Due to strenuous efforts of the Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal, government procurement of sunflower has been made successful over the past five years. When sunflower arrived in mandis in 2017, the chief minister said that the government would purchase 20% of the overall crop. By the next year, that percentage had climbed to 50%, and by the following year, it had reached 100%.

Hafed has procured Sunflower at the rate of Rs. 4,850 per quintal in Shahbad Anaj Mandi yesterday and with the Chief Minister's giving interim relief of Rs. 1000 per quintal under the Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana, now the purchase of sunflower in Haryana has raised to Rs. 5,800 per quintal. In this series, the CM disbursed 29.13 crores in the accounts of sunflower farmers yesterday.

While the market price is much less than this, at present sunflower is being purchased in the mandis of Punjab between Rs. 3,800 and Rs. 4,200.

However, due to the announcement of relief of Rs. 1000 per quintal transfer rate compensation on the purchase of sunflower, the Chief Minister had expressed apprehension that farmers of other states may also turn to Haryana to sell their crops.

The Chief Minister profoundly understands the challenges of the farmers and correspondingly takes decisions that are in their best interests. The Central Government led by Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi has also implemented a system to declare the Minimum Support Price of crops even before the start of the sowing season. Due to this, the farmer has the option of sowing which crop will give him more profit. Recently, the Central Government has announced the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 17 crops for the year 2023-24.