The food ministry has stated that the government's wheat procurement has touched 34.15 million tonnes (MT) as on May 24 in the 2020-21 marketing year, surpassing last year's figure of 34.13 MT, surmounting all impediments in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Wheat procurement target has been set at 40.7 MT for the 2020-21 marketing year. Although the wheat marketing year runs from April-March, the bulk of procurement is normally done in the first three months. State-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies undertake purchase of wheat at the minimum support price.
Out of the total procurement, 12.58 MT of wheat has been procured in Punjab, 11.33 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 7.06 MT in Haryana, 2.03 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 31,000 tonnes in Uttarakhand, 21,000 tonnes in Gujarat, 12,000 tonnes in Chandigarh and 3,000 tonnes in Himachal Pradesh. Highlighting measures taken for smooth procurement, the ministry said wheat harvesting generally starts towards the end of March and procurement commences in the first week of April every year. However, with the imposition of the lockdown with effect from March 24, all operations came to a standstill. The crop had ripened by then and was ready for harvesting.
Considering this, the central government gave relaxation to start agricultural and related activities during the lockdown period, and the procurement could start from April 15 in most of the procuring states. Haryana started little late on April 20. Stating that the biggest challenge was to ensure that procurement is done in a ‘safe manner’ during the pandemic, the ministry said this was achieved through a multi-pronged strategy of awareness creation, social distancing and deployment of technology.
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