Madhya Pradesh Moong Procurement Dispute Escalates Between State, Centre

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh want the government to buy all of their moong beans at a fair price.

The state chief minister, Mohan Yadav, is trying to solve the problem by talking with the farmers and making a special panel.

The national agriculture minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, says the problem is not how much the state wants to buy, but how fast the state is buying.

He says the national policy only allows the state to buy up to 25% of the beans it produces.

The state has already been given a big amount to buy, about 4.54 lakh tonnes, but it has only bought about 60,000 tonnes so far.

The farmers started a march on July 27 to ask for 100% purchase and to stop a new online system that makes it hard to get fertilizer.

The state said it will buy more beans and will pause the online fertilizer system until it works better.