Punjab beats MP in wheat procurement

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 5

A record 433.24 lakh metric tonne (LMT) of wheat has been procured in the rabi marketing season 2021-22, surpassing the previous high of 389.93 LMT in 2020-21, the Centre today said.

Food Corporation of India CMD Atish Chandra said the highest procurement (132.10 LMT wheat) was from Punjab. Last year, Madhya Pradesh topped the list. Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and J&K have recorded their “best ever” procurement so far, Chandra added.

With 132.10 LMT wheat procured from Punjab, the state regained the lead position, overtaking Madhya Pradesh (128.08 LMT). In the 2020-21 rabi season, MP topped the list (129.42 LMT) followed by Punjab (127.14 LMT).

An all-time high MSP of Rs 84,369.19 crore was directly transferred into the accounts of 49,16,424 farmers across the country under the ‘One Nation, One MSP, One DBT’ scheme. A record 49.16 lakh farmers benefited against 43.35 lakh last year, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said. According to the FCI CMD, Rs 26,103.89 crore was paid to 8,85,117 farmers in Punjab and Rs 16,706.33 crore to 7,60,636 farmers in Haryana, the two states leading the agitation against the three farm laws. It was the first time that farmers in the two states received remuneration for grain directly in their accounts.

Amid the expected issues related to bumper procurement and storage management, Chandra said: “The preparations for extra storage were made in advance based on procurement targets. Some unscientific storage is due to huge volumes of procurement. Currently, only 17.91 LMT grain is under unscientific storage.”