Madhya Pradesh has emerged the top state in the country in wheat procurement on support price by purchasing over 1.27 crore tonnes from farmers, which accounts for 33 per cent of all wheat procured in the country, an official said on Monday.
He said wheat procurement in MP had increased by 74 per cent over the previous year when 73.69 lakh MT wheat was purchased on support price.
“Madhya Pradesh has reached the first position in the country in the procurement of wheat on support price. So far, 1, 27,67,628 metric tonnes of wheat has been procured. This accounts for 33 per cent of wheat procured by all states.
Punjab is second to MP,” a public relations department official said.
He said the total amount of wheat procured in the country stood at 3,86,54,000 metric tonnes.
“Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave top priority to the management of wheat procurement. In 75 consecutive meetings chaired by him on the issue from March 23, wheat procurement was reviewed daily,” he said.
“The MP government formulated an effective strategy for wheat procurement. Arrangements were made for gunny bags and storage while setting a target of 100 lakh MT more than the procurement made last year.
“The biggest challenge was to ensure more procurement in a short time from more farmers, for which the number of procurement centres was increased from 3,545 last year to 4,529 centres,” said the official.
He said social distancing norms were adhered to given the coronavirus outbreak, and SMSes were sent to manage the number of farmers at procurement centres.
“Money was transferred into farmer bank accounts in seven days on an average. So far, an amount of Rs 20,253 crore has been deposited in the accounts of 14,19,000 farmers,” he said.
Out of the total wheat procured, 118 lakh metric tonnes has been safely stored, which is almost 95 per cent of the quantity purchased, he said.
“This time, 81 per cent of farmers who were registered came to procurement centres to sell wheat, which is a record too,” the official added.
A letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.
Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.
In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.
We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.
But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.
I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.
A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!
Support Quality Journalism