How does grading and assaying work at the mandi and how does it affect my price?

Assaying means testing a representative sample of your lot against quality parameters before it is auctioned. For grains the common parameters are moisture content, foreign matter and dust, broken or damaged grains, and sometimes immature or shrivelled grains; for some crops colour, size and lustre also matter. The lab or quality counter assigns a grade, and that grade is shown to buyers during online bidding, so a higher grade attracts higher bids and a poor grade pulls the price down. The single biggest controllable factor is usually moisture and cleaning, so drying your produce properly and cleaning out dust, stones and chaff before bringing it can directly raise your grade and your final rate. Ask for a copy of your assaying or grade report so you know why a certain rate was bid. The exact parameters and tolerance limits depend on the commodity, so confirm the standards used at your mandi quality counter.