BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

GRADING AND STANDARDISATION

[Commercial grading means specification of the agricultural produce from the commercial point of view according to the standard and quality of that produce.]

To provide clean and standard quality of produce the need was felt to introduce commercial grading for the selected commodities in some leading markets. This has become an important step in regulation of agricultural trade. The system received good response in the district. Initially the system was applied to a very few commodities such as pulses, groundnut (unshelled), onions and oil-seeds, but was subsequently extended to the rest of the regulated commodities. Government has appointed graders who are specialised in the job.

Commercial grading system is applied to four markets, viz., Sholapur, Barshi, Pandharpur and Akkalkot. A separate staff appointed by the Government is employed for this purpose at these centres. The mode of functioning of this system at some of these centres is given below.

Sholapur: The system was introduced in January 1963 and was applied only to groundnut (unshelled), and in 1967-68 to udid. A separate grading unit of five graders is employed at this market. The turn-over of graded commodities during the three years from 1965-66 to 1967-68 is given in tables Nos. 63 and 64.

Pandharpur: Government has started a grading unit at this market by appointing two graders. Initially grading was restricted to jowar and groundnut (unshelled), but subsequently it was applied to safflower, tur, paddy and gram in 1969. The turn-over of graded commodities in the year 1968-69 was as under:—

The graders also analysed the samples of tur (110), safflower (238), groundnut (164) and gram (46). Jowar and paddy which are under the monopoly procurement scheme are graded by the graders of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Marketing Federation.

Barshi: Commercial grading was started from 1962-63 and was applied to mug, groundnut, tur and jowar. The peak season for grading of various commodities is as under:—

Graders sort out the bags as per grades and in case of other commodities every bag is inspected and grade is allotted to the produce by examining the sample in the bag. As per this method 2,000 bags of mug and 1,000 bags of udid were daily inspected for auction in the year 1968-69. The characteristics which are generally taken into consideration while determining the commercial grade of various commodities are as under:—

Groundnut (unshelled): Moisture, thickness of the shell, colour of the groundnut seed, percentage of attached clay, groundnut pods without kernel, percentage of foreign matter, percentage of one seed groundnut pods, and percentage of damaged pods.

Tur, mug, udid, jowar: Colour and shining of the grain, size of the grain, foreign matter, damaged and slightly damaged grains, immature and shrivelled grains, unripe grains, water contamination, a mixture of other varieties and a mixture of other food-grains.

Label system: The Barshi market committee has introduced the label system from 1963-64. After allotment of grade the label is attached to the commodity mentioning therein name of the agriculturist and number of bags. This system helps the agriculturist to understand the grade of his produce and the purchasers to get the delivery of the lot which they have purchased in the auction.

Method of sale: The licensed general commission agents are divided into three groups for the purpose of grading and auction. The arrivals of one group are graded and auctioned everyday. These groups are again divided into three sub-groups in order to facilitate the buyer to purchase according to their capacity. After grading the commodity, all the concerned general commission agents and agriculturists assemble in one prescribed shop for auction. Before auction takes place all the buyers inspect some of the lots at random. Due to this system auction of all varieties and grades could be done quickly. This is a peculiar type of auction system where the characteristics of open auction and grading of agricultural produce are linked together.

Analysis of agricultural produce: Two samples of graded commodities are analysed visually everyday by the graders and the results obtained from the analysis are recorded. As such, 175 samples of mug, 35 of udid, 230 of tur and 250 of groundnut were analysed in 1968-69. With the assumption of grading work by the market committees it is found that this type of auction received an encouraging response from agriculturists as well as traders.

The Government of Maharashtra provided grading equipment valued at about Rs. 1,500 for the grading laboratory, while the market committee provided Rs. 2,000 for the same purpose. The turnover of graded commodities [The turn-over of commodities is given in quintals.] during the five years from 1963-64 was as under:—

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