For the last few days, videos have been making rounds on social media networks where farmers could be seen lining up outside silos owned by Adani Group to sell their crops in the Moga district of Punjab. Some of the media houses have claimed that the farmers are selling the crop to Adani Group instead of going to government mandis, where wheat is procured at a fixed MSP.
The media outlets like ABP Sanjha, The Khalsa TV, The Punjab TV, and others claimed the farmers are selling crops to the Adani Group. On the other hand, other media houses like Indian Express and Pro Punjab TV used clickbait titles for their reports.
In a short report, ABP Sanjha stated that farmers opposed Adani Group during farmer protests, but now they have chosen Adani silos to sell wheat. It showed long queues outside Adani Silos in Moga. Speaking to ABP Sanjha, a farmer named Harpreet Singh said he was not only able to save time by selling the produce there but also save around Rs 5,000 extra in the whole process.
In its report, Khalsa TV alleged that farmers told them as government mandis were closed in Moga, Punjab and Kaithal, Haryana, they had no other choice but to sell produce at Adani Silos. Khalsa TV alleged the government had made the system in such a way that the farmers had to go to Adani Silos to sell the produce.
In its clickbait report, Pro Punjab TV said that the farmers were choosing Adani Silos as there were more facilities. The report suggested the Adani Silos officials informed them that Adani Group is not procuring the wheat but only storing it on behalf of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) that has taken Adani Silos on rent. The procurement is done by the government, and Adani Group has no role in it.
Interestingly, the farmer Pro Punjab TV spoke to did not mention he was selling produce to FCI. He confessed that he was part of farmer protests and stayed at the Delhi border for a year. He further claimed the farmer union leaders cheated them by entering into politics, and now he had to remove the Kisan Protest flag from his tractor to come to Adani Silos to sell the produce. His tractor had “I am farmer not terrorist” written in Punjabi. He told the reporter that it took only four hours to complete the process at Adani Silos, but the wheat that his known farmer sold at a government Mandi in another district took around five days to complete the process.
The Punjab TV ran a 6-minute rant of a Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader alleging that the claims of wheat being sold to FCI and not Adani Group were fake. He blamed the Centre for allegedly misleading the farmers. He alleged the central government has planned to shut down government Mandis and shift the procurement process to private companies. He urged the farmers not to go to Adani Silos and said the farmers would take their rights directly from the government.
The reality behind the Adani Silos controversy
The claims that the Adani Group is procuring food grains is not corerct and misleading, because the grains being stored in Adani silos are actually purchased by the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Adani group has built the silos, the FCI has taken the Silos on rent, and the farmers follow the same process of selling the wheat as they were following all those years. According to a report in The Indian Express (that used the clickbait title showing farmers are selling wheat to Adani Group), noted that the silos have been functional since 2007.
The silos that come under Adani Agri logistic have a capacity of 2-lakh tones. Every wheat season, it gets around 90,000 tonnes of wheat. The Indian Express quoted Amandeep Singh Soni, cluster manager of Adani Agri logistic at Moga, saying, “We have been providing the storage place to FCI, and in lieu of that, the government pays rent and handling charges to the Adani group as decided by the government agency but the crop is procured by FCI only.”
Speaking to OpIndia, Pankaj Kumar Singharia, Divisional Manager, FCI Divisional Office, Moga refuted the claims that wheat was being sold to Adani Group. He said, “Adani Silos are just a storage point, and the Adani Group has no role in procurement other than providing the facility for storage of the produce. The Silos are located in close proximity to the villages, making it easier and economical for the farmers to sell the produce. The claims that Adani Group is procuring the wheat are false. FCI and state agencies are doing the procurement as per their requirement.”
As per a report in Times Of India, farmers can get the wheat cleaned and unload the wheat at Adani silos in one go making it easier for them. As the handling is also managed by the Adani group company, the farmers are finding that the facility better for them. They are getting MSP as suggested by the central government, and the payment is being made directly in the bank accounts of the farmers within 48 hours.
TOI quoted a farmer Kulwinder Singh saying, “We are selling the stock at an MSP of Rs 2,015 per quintal and not a penny more. There is a misinformation campaign that farmers are selling wheat to Adani at rates higher than MSP, and totally untrue.”
Those who are accusing the farmers of selling crops to Adani Group have alleged that those farmers have forgotten the “sacrifice of 700+ farmers who died during protests”. Notably, there were discrepancies reported in the number of deaths farmer unions claimed had happened during farmer protests.
