E-Paper
Surpassed Punjab in procurement of wheat, says Madhya Pradesh
The Madhya Pradesh government formulated an effective strategy for wheat procurement. All arrangements were made while procurement started late on April 15 due to coronavirus situation, the principal secretary said.
Madhya Pradesh claimed to have surpassed Punjab in wheat procurement this rabi harvest season, to become the top state to procure the grain. The government said in an official communiqué that it had procured over 12 million metric tonnes of wheat by June 8.
“Madhya Pradesh has reached the first position in the country in procurement of wheat on support price. Punjab ranks second in the country. Thus, 33% of the total wheat procured by all the states of the country has been procured in Madhya Pradesh,” the statement said. “As much as 38,654,000 metric tonnes of wheat have been procured throughout the country. Wheat procurement in Madhya Pradesh has increased by 74% as compared to that of the last year. Last year 73.69 lakh metric tonnes wheat was procured in Madhya Pradesh on support price.”
Principal secretary, Food and Civil Supply Shivshekhar Shukla said, “Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave top priority to the management of wheat procurement. In 75 consecutive meetings conducted by the CM from March 23, wheat procurement was reviewed daily. Leaving behind the hurdles of Corona lockdown and Nisarga cyclone impact the procurement team, Corona warriors and farmers of Madhya Pradesh made concerted efforts in this gigantic task.”
The principal secretary said the government formulated an effective strategy for wheat procurement. All arrangements were made while procurement started late on April 15 due to Corona situation. Government made arrangements for additional gunny bags and storage immediately.
“The biggest challenge was to ensure more procurement in a short time from more farmers. For this, the number of procurement centres was increased from 3545 last year to 4529 centres this year. While adhering to social distancing, the system of sending SMS to farmers was ensured so that only those who received the SMS reached the procurement centre. For the first time, in view of the challenge of completing procurement at the appropriate time, the facility to determine the SMS number at each centre was given to the collectors. At least 75 lakh SMSes were sent to farmers to ensure their awareness about Corona and other related information”, said the principal secretary.
On Food Corporation of India (FCI) portal not showing the figures as being claimed by the state government the principal secretary said, “The FCI data on its web portal shows Punjab ahead but its data is yet to be updated. Wheat procurement process in Punjab came to an end on May 31 for this year, hence there is no chance of any further increase in Punjab procurement figure whereas in Madhya Pradesh procurement will go on up to June 15.”
The FCI data shows that the government will have enough wheat to maintain steady food stocks to enable that the government is able to run different food schemes including Public Distribution System (PDS) during Covid pandemic, in which the government has increased supply of subsidised food grains to the poor and needy.
