Wheat procurement increases to 64.79 lakh tonnes so far in 2021-22: Food Secretary

16 Apr 2021 Evaluate

Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey stated that the government's wheat procurement has increased to 64.79 lakh tonnes till April 14 in the ongoing 2021-22 marketing year that began this month, with maximum purchases from Haryana. In the year-ago period, only 60 tonne was procured, while in the previous year of 2019-20 about 12 lakh tonne grain was procured. Normally, wheat procurement begins from April 1 but it differs in some states depending on the climate conditions. He added that for instance in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, procurement began from March 15 this year while in Rajasthan and Haryana, it was from April 1. In Punjab, it was from April 10 and in Bihar, it will start from April 20.

He emphasized huge quantity of wheat is being purchased and the reports of low procurement is ‘baseless’ and without any ‘truth’. Wheat worth Rs 12,800 crore has been purchased so far at a minimum support price of Rs 1,975 per quintal. Until now, 6,60,593 farmers from 11 states have benefitted. Further, the secretary said Haryana is leading in wheat procurement now as it has contributed 50 per cent of the total procurement so far.

The government has kept a wheat procurement target of 427 lakh tonnes for the current year. As per the latest data, 30 lakh tonnes of wheat have been procured in Haryana, 20.63 lakh tonnes in Madhya Pradesh and 10.56 lakh tonnes in Punjab so far this year. About 1.83 lakh tonnes of wheat have been procured in Uttar Pradesh, 1.31 lakh tonnes in Rajasthan and 22,813 tonnes in Gujarat so far.

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