The Centre has procured 52.83 lakh tonnes of pulses and oilseeds worth Rs 24,503 crore so far under the price support scheme (PSS), according to the Agriculture Ministry.

The PSS is operationalised on the state governments' request when the prices fall below the minimum support price (MSP). The procurement is undertaken by nodal agencies like Nafed at the MSP. Only fair average quality commodity is purchased.

As per the ministry's latest data, both pulses and oilseeds have been purchased under the PSS in a dozen states.

Much of the procurement was undertaken in Madhya Pradesh at 22.91 lakh tonnes, followed by Rajasthan at 15.58 lakh tonnes and Gujarat at 4.60 lakh tonnes till January 16 of this 2018-19 crop year (July-June).

The procurement in Maharasthra was at 2.26 lakh tonnes, Haryana at 2.30 lakh tonnes, Karnataka at 1.64 lakh tonnes, Telangana at 1.07 lakh tonnes, Uttar Pradesh at 57,780 tonnes, Odisha at 9,655 tonnes, Tamil Nadu at 1,912 tonnes and West Bengal at 826 tonnes in the said period, data showed.

In total, 52.83 lakh tonnes of pulses and oilseeds has been procured under the PSS, which is worth Rs 24,503 crore, till January 16 of this year, the data showed.

Prices of pulses and oilseeds are under pressure owing to higher production.

As per the first estimate of the ministry, pulses output during the 2018 Kharif season is pegged at 0.91 million tonnes, as against 0.82 million tonnes achieved in the year-ago.

Similarly, production of oilseeds is estimated to be 22.18 million tonnes as against 20.99 million tonnes in the said period.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)