Belagavi: They may be thirsting for water, but drought-hit Vijayapura and other districts of north Karnataka have had a bumper tur dal crop, leading to the state recording its highest ever tur dal production of 75 lakh quintals this year.
Taken by surprise, the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) is finding itself short of bags to pack all the tur brought to the markets by the farmers and is waiting for more of them to be brought from Kolkata to meet the unexpected demand.
“The production is so huge that the APMC is short of bags to pack tur dal being brought by the farmers to it. Over 30,000 are waiting in queue to supply tur dal to the APMC,'' said Vijayapura APMC secretary, Ramesh.
While Vijayapura has contributed 30 lakh quintals of the 75 lakh quintals of tur produced in the state, Kalaburgi has accounted for 40 lakh quintals. The government has meanwhile, procured 25 lakh quintals for its food security scheme, leaving only the rest for consumers.
A tur grower, Gopal Sali from Honwad in Vijayapura district, who has loads of the dal in his godown, fears his stock will be damaged if the APMC does not collect it soon.
"We hope the government will expedite the process as thousands of farmers are waiting in queue to supply their produce to the Vijayapura APMC," he said worriedly.
The state government requires at least 1.26 lakh quintals of tur dal annually for dispersal through the public distribution system. Karnataka State Co-operative Marketing Federation, which has set up 48 centres in eight districts for procurement of the dal, has reportedly demanded more time to do the job as merely 30 to 40 per cent of the tur produced in the state has been purchased so far.
