The Food Corporation of India and other state agencies in the country procured 386,54 lakh tonnes of wheat till date.
Wheat procurement in Madhya Pradesh increased by 74 per cent this year compared to last year when 73.69 lakh tonne at the minimum support price.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has conducted 75 consecutive meetings from March 23, to conduct the review of wheat procurement when the season began.
“An effective strategy has been formulated by the state government to conduct wheat procurement. The government set a target of 100 lakh metric tonnes and also arranged gunny bags and storage for farmers,” said Madhya Pradesh government official press release.
“Procurement delayed to April 15 due to the rise of the pandemic, however, the government knew this year procurement would be high,” added the press release.
Despite the lockdown in the state, the government arranged gunny bags for 25 lakh tonnes, and storage was arranged for a weight quantity of 10 lakh tonnes.
The government effectively used existing procurement centres and added more to manage the high flow of wheat production this year. Procurement centres were increased from 3545 last year to 4529. Messages were sent to farmers at a different time to follow the social distancing and avoid the rush at the centres.
Last year the per cent of small and medium farmers in the procurement was only 40 how every this year this number increased to 84 per cent, which shows small and medium farmers did good profits this year said the press release.