Ahead of the first anniversary of Mandsaur police firing, in which six protesting farmers were killed on June 6, the Madhya Pradesh government will buy around 7,000 tons of poppy husk from farmers and destroy it. The purchase of poppy straw, which is the leftover from opium production, will cost the government Rs 100 crore.

Although the sale and purchase of opium and its byproducts like poppy husk and poppy straw have been declared illegal by the Central Bureau of Narcotics, the state government will buy them from farmers. The Central Bureau of Narcotics, in 2016, declared that poppy straw or opium husk should be destroyed and not sold in market by farmers. The last minimum support price for poppy husk was Rs 125 per kilogram.

This purchase from farmers' calamity fund is being made to pacify farmers of Mandsaur and two neighbouring districts, who had gone on a violent protest last year over the drop of prices of crops.

There are nearly 50,000 licensed poppy cultivators in Mandsaur, Neemuch and Ratlam. The government does not want the anger of farmers become an issue in the region, which was predominately a BJP bastion.

The cultivation of poppy has been a bone of contention between the farmers and government as it fetches a good price for the cultivators. Opium is extracted from poppy husk and seeds are removed. Poppy seeds are called khus-khus, and are used as a spice in cooking. The practice has been to sell opium to government, and the remains in local market.

Chief Minister Shviraj Singh had earlier declared in state assembly that the state government will not leave farmers in distress. He said a mechanism would be formed to buy poppy husk by the government, and it will be destroyed in its supervision.

According to official sources, the government will soon declare the mechanism for buying and burning poppy husk.