The State government on Tuesday announced that it would directly procure 4,000 MT of black gram and 3,367 MT of green gram from farmers during 2021-22. It announced a minimum support price of ₹63 a kg for black gram and ₹72.75 a kg for green gram.

The desired moisture content of black gram and green gram is 12% during direct procurement at regulated markets. The Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board would be the nodal agency, regulated markets would be the direct procurement centres and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) would be the Central agency.

Black gram would be directly procured through 31 regulated markets. Green gram would be procured through 17 regulated markets, an official release said.

Farmers intending to benefit from the scheme could produce chitta, adangal, Aadhaar card and bank account details to the respective regulated markets, it said. The payments would be made directly to their bank accounts. As for directly procuring red gram, the government would decide on it soon after the harvest of the crop.

It may be recalled that while presenting the Agriculture Budget, the State announced that it would procure pulses directly from farmers through regulated markets at minimum support price in order to protect farmers from price fall during harvest seasons. It said it would procure 61,000 MT of pulses such as red gram, black gram and green gram during the current year.

“Action will be taken to procure these protein-rich pulses through co-operative societies and the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation to distribute through the Public Distribution System and also to supply for the noon meal scheme,” the budget stated.