What MP farmers gained from two-day blockade of Bhopal highway

The farmers called off their agitation after the government agreed to buy significantly more summer moong produce and revert to offline sale of fertiliserAgitating farmers who had blocked the Bhopal-Narmadapuram highway for two days finally called off their agitation on the night of July 29 after successful talks with a committee set up by the Madhya Pradesh government to look into their demands, in which had prominently figured procurement of the entire production of summer moong crop and withdrawal of eVikas, a portal-based chemical fertiliser supply system.After discussions between the committee, led by state agriculture minister Aidal Singh Kansana, and 16 farmer organisations, the government announced that it would buy 60 per cent of the average produce of the summer moong crop at Minimum Support Price. This means the average amount of moong that can be sold has been increased from 1.25 quintals per acre to 3 quintals per acre.The financial burden of the decision would be borne by the state. The government will have to spend around Rs 1,200 crore more for buying the additional moong. The period for booking slots for selling moong has been extended to August 10 and for procuring the crop to August 20.The government has also announced suspension of the eVikas fertiliser supply system. Sale would continue by the traditional offline model. On July 27, the farmers had begun a walk from the Narmadapuram district headquarters, some 70 kms away, and reached the outskirts of Bhopal the next evening, camping next to police barricades erected to stop them. The protesters had threatened to encircle chief minister Mohan Yadav’s official residence, following which the protest area was sealed and police deployed heavily. This caused public inconvenience as several residential areas, schools and colleges are located alongside the Narmadapuram road.Why were the farmers aggrieved? The Madhya Pradesh government procures moong sown in the summer months between the main rabi and kharif crops. The summer moong crop, a third crop cultivation started around a decade ago, has helped significantly improve farm incomes in the Raisen, Sehore, Narmadapuram and Harda districts.The Union government has set a procurement target of 25 per cent of the total moong production in Madhya Pradesh. This translates to around 454,580 tonnes. The state government asked the Centre to increase this to 40 per cent of the production or 806,000 tonnes. The reason is that there is a wide gap between actual production, which is around 5 quintals per acre, and the procurement limit set (1.25 quintals per acre).It implied that the excess produce would have to be sold by farmers in the open market, where the rates are far lower (Rs 6,500 per quintal) than what the government offered (Rs 8,682 per quintal). The resulting losses were a reason for grouse. Compounding the problem was the bumper harvest of moong.The other issue has been the new eVIKAS system for purchasing fertiliser. The government says this is meant to prevent black-marketing as well as queues at buying centres, which often leads to public disorder. Farmers, on the other hand, find the system complicated. They complain about neither getting adequate fertiliser nor on time.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Jul 30, 2026 19:14 IST