Procurement of wheat reaches all-time high amid COVID-19 lockdown; Madhya Pradesh becomes largest contributor

New Delhi: The procurement of wheat from farmers by government agencies touched an all-time record figure so far in the 2020-21 marketing year, when total procurement for the central pool reached 382 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) has surpassed the earlier record of 381.48 LMT achieved during 2012-13, according to a Food Ministry statement. Notably, this has been accomplished during the trying times of COVID-19 pandemic when the country was under lockdown.  

Madhya Pradesh has become the largest contributor to central pool with 129 LMT wheat, surpassing Punjab which procured 127 LMT. Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan also made significant contributions to the national procurement of wheat, the statement said. 

42 Lakh farmers have been benefitted from this wheat procurement of all over India, and a total amount of about Rs 73,500 crore has been paid to them towards minimum support price for wheat. "The hefty inflow of food grains into central pool ensured that FCI is ready to meet any additional requirement of food grains for the people of the country in coming months," the statement said.

During this period, 119 Lakh MT paddy was also procured by the government agencies through 13,606 purchase centers. Maximum procurement was done by Telangana which contributed 64 LMT followed by Andhra Pradesh with 31 LMT. 

The state-wise procurement of wheat and paddy is as follows:

Notably, the commencement of procurement was delayed by a fortnight due to the first lockdown and started only from 15th April in most of the wheat surplus states as against the scheduled date of 1st April. 

It said, "extraordinary efforts have been made by state governments and all government procuring agencies led by Food Corporation of India (FCI) to ensure that wheat is procured from farmers without any delay and in a safe manner." 

The number of purchase centers was increased from 14,838 to 21,869 this year by opening procurement centers in all possible locations, in addition to traditional mandis, thereby, helping to reduce farmers' footfall in mandis and ensured proper social distancing. 

Technological solutions were deployed to regulate the daily inflows into mandis through token systems. These measures, along with actions on the ground for regular sanitizing, earmarking of dumping areas for each farmer etc, ensured that none of the food grain procurement centers became COVID-19 hotspot anywhere in the country, it added.