Uttar Pradesh Food Commissioner Manish Chauhan announced that 6000 procurement centers would be opened by the food department and other purchasing agencies.
The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to purchase wheat from the farmers until their stock exists. The purchase will start from 1 April on a minimum support price [MSP] of RS 1975 per quintal for the 2020-21 season, increasing Rs 50 per quintal compared to last year.
This year, the government is not fixing any quantity for wheat procurement. Instead, it has been decided that they will continue to buy wheat at the newly increased price until the farmer's stock lasts. Farmer can sell as much as he wants on MSP from 1st April 21 to 15th June 21, he said. To keep the middlemen out of the procurement process, the government has made registration compulsory for farmers on the food and civil supplies department portal.
For farmers who want to sell more than 100 quintals of wheat to government agencies, the revenue department will verify their land and output to ensure transparency. The government has decided that the entire process will occur through biometric authentication e-pos machines to keep the middlemen out.
The state government will also be geo-tagging the purchase centers and warehouses.
It is important to mention that the wheat procurement target of UP in 2020-21 was 55 lakh MT, but the actual purchase was 35.76 lakh metric ton only.
Food Commissioner said that we are planning to increase our storage spaces in case we get more wheat than last year. We are planning to set a temporary shed at government factories and sugar mill complexes. Additionally, as a short-term measure, we are also considering inter-district and inter-state movement of the stock.
