The wheat procurement season kicked off in Uttar Pradesh today with the government facing an uphill task in achieving its target of procuring 4 million tonnes (MT) of the food grain.
According to official estimates, India’s leading wheat producer UP is expecting a bumper and quality wheat output at 28.8 MT over 9.69 million hectares. Last year, wheat production had stood at 27.5 MT.
The government has estimated that almost 5.5 MT of wheat would be surplus and available for procurement. A major portion of the rabi crop is retained by farmers for personal consumption and remaining comes to market.
During 2010-11 also, UP had set a similar target of procuring 4 MT of wheat, however, the state agencies and FCI could not achieve even 50 per cent of it.
“The procurement system in UP suffers from logistical bottlenecks and laxity of the field staff,” Kisan Jagrati Manch president Sudhir Panwar told Business Standard.
Of the combined target of 4 MT, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has a miniscule target of 1,00,000 lakh tonnes like last year.
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He said instances were abound when the procurement centres lacked proper handling, storage and weighing mechanism. “Once farmers arrive at any mandi or procurement centre to sell their produce, they return only after selling, even if it is below the Minimum Support Price (MSP). About 20 per cent of the procurement centres function only on paper,” he said.
Wheat MSP stands at Rs 1,120 per quintal, while the state government had not announced any bonus above it. Panwar demanded that the central government should allow wheat export and domestic bulk purchase of wheat to facilitate more remunerative prices to farmers and prevent distress selling. Meanwhile, the procurement season would stretch through June 30.
Recently, the state chief secretary had directed food department officials to ensure proper functioning of the 4,442 procurement centres in Uttar Pradesh and payment to farmers through account payee cheques. According to Lucknow-based Naveen Galla Mandi, the arrival of wheat in the local market would take 10 days.
Last year, MSP had stood at Rs 1,100, however, UP farmers had received payment at the rate of Rs 1,056 per quintal due to shriveled crop following excess heat.
Meanwhile, UP is trying to operationalise ‘single window’ system in the procurement process.