 "Govt procures record 43.33 MT wheat in 2021-22 rabi marketing season")
The government has procured record 43.33 million tonne of wheat in the 2021-22 rabi marketing season, the Food Ministry said on Monday.
Wheat marketing season is from April to March, but bulk of procurement is normally done in the first 3-4 months.
The previous record was 38.99 million tonne (MT) in the 2020-21 rabi marketing season.
"Hitting an all-time high, 43.33 million tonne of wheat has been procured from most of the wheat procuring states after conclusion of current marketing season 2021-22," the ministry said in a release.
About 49.15 lakh farmers have already benefitted from the current procurement operations with an MSP (minimum support price) value of Rs 85,581.39 crore, it said.
However, procurement of paddy grown in the kharif season of 2020-21 is still continuing. Kharif paddy is procured between October and September.
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The ministry said paddy buying is continuing smoothly and so far 86.98 million tonne of paddy has been purchased as against 75.92 million tonne in the year-ago period.
Paddy procurement has also reached at all-time high level, surpassing the previous high of 77.34 million tonne in kharif 2019-20.
About 128.38 lakh farmers have already benefitted from the kharif paddy procurement with an MSP value of Rs 1,64,217.43 crore, the ministry added.
In case of pulses and oilseeds, the government through nodal agencies has procured total 10.49 lakh tonne at MSP value of Rs 5,662.82 crore so far.
About 6.38 lakh farmers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Odisha and Rajasthan have benefitted from pulses and oilseeds procurement, it added.