The Centre is currently planning a key reform in food procurement by mandating biometric identification for cultivators to weed out malpractices and make sure that only genuine farmers get the benefit of MSP or minimum support prices.
A senior government official said, “We are starting a pilot in 4 districts of Odisha from this kharif harvest. After the successful execution, we will slowly replicate it in every part of the country”.
He told that there have been a large number of complaints that traders as well as middlemen purchase grains from growers at prices lower than the MSP & sell it to government at the floor rate, cornering the price difference.
The official added that “This will curtail this practice & farmers will receive the promised prices. Like in any other government yojana, Aadhaar verification will be obligatory for selling produce to the government. With this, only authentic farmers will get the benefit”.
He told the government will offer a grant of Rs 1 lakh each for computerisation of procurement centres across India adding that “There will be 1 laptop and an electronic point-ofsale (PoS) machine at every centre to capture farmers’ thumb impression after they sell their produce. PoS machines will be linked with central data centre for Aadhaar verification. This will plug all leakages & ensure right remuneration for growers”.
It must be noted that the Centre procures mainly wheat and rice in huge quantities to support its public distribution system, under which poor households get food grains at subsidised rates.
He noted that “Every year, government purchases around 45 million tonnes of rice and 35 million tonnes of wheat at MSP, benefiting as many as 10 crore farmers. Wheat and rice are then distributed via ration shops at highly subsidised rate of Rs 3 per kg and Rs 2 per kg respectively as per National Food Security Act (NFSA)”.
