"The government will stand by farmers and ensure that all their farm produce is procured," he said in reply to questions raised by the opposition members. Deshmukh also said that instructions have been issued to the authorities concerned to take action against traders who procure the farm produce at a price less than the MSP. The procurement of farm produce was being done through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), he pointed out. The actual procurement of tur is only about 4 to 5 per cent, and the gram procurement (target) is 3 lakh tonne. He also said that the gram production was 11.8 lakh tonne and the procurement target was three lakh tonne.

Source: dna March 22, 2018 09:56 UTC