Wheat procurement surpasses last year’s total procurement, 21.27 lakh farmers already benefited
The wheat procurement during this crop season has been remarkably well, which is inspired by the all-round developments taking place in the agriculture sector. Third advance estimates of production of major crops released just a few days earlier, have estimated a total foodgrain production of 3305.34 lakh tonnes for the year 2022-23, which is quite satisfactory. This stupendous performance of the agriculture sector has given a big boost to the procurement also.
During the ongoing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2023-24, wheat procurement has progressed smoothly. The progressive procurement of wheat in the current season till 30.05.2023 is 262 Lakh Metric Ton (LMT) which has already surpassed last year’s total procurement of 188 LMT by 74 LMT.
Larger wheat procurement means farmers’ income is growing significantly. About 21.27 lakh farmers have already benefited from the ongoing wheat procurement operations with Minimum Support Price (MSP) outflow of about Rs. 47,000 crores. Major contribution in the procurement has come from three procuring states of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana with procurement of 121.27 LMT, 70.98 LMT and 63.17 LMT respectively.
The major contributing factors in healthy procurement this year has been the grant of relaxation by the Government of India in quality specifications of wheat affected due to untimely rains, opening of procurement centres at village and panchayat level, carrying out procurement through Co-operative Societies or Gram Panchayats or Arhatias etc. in addition to designated procurement centres for better outreach and permission to engage FPOs for procurement operations.
The rice procurement is also progressing smoothly. A quantity of 385 LMT of rice has been procured till 30.05.2023 during the Kharif crop of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2022-23 with another 110 LMT yet to be procured. Further, a quantity of 106 LMT rice has been estimated to be procured during the Rabi crop of KMS 2022-23.
The combined stock position of wheat and rice in the Central Pool is over 579 LMT with wheat being 312 LMT and rice being 267 LMT, which has placed the country in a comfortable position to meet its requirements of food grains.
Third Advance Estimates of production of major crops for agricultural year 2022-23 have been highly encouraging. According to them, the foodgrain production of 3305.34 lakh tonnes is estimated in the current agricultural year.
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