Government agencies and private millers procured more than 8.33 million (8,329,000) tonnes of wheat till Friday, whereas 9.71 million tonnes (MT) wheat was procured last year.
Of the total wheat procurement in all the centres in Punjab, government agencies procured 8.32 MT of wheat (99.08 per cent) till date whereas private traders procured 14,416 tonnes (0.2 per cent) of wheat. The central government agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) had been able to procure 1.19 MT of wheat which was 14.3 per cent of the total wheat procured in the state.
The spokesman added that Ferozepur with 0.94 MT procurement was leading in procurement operations whereas district Sangrur with 0.91 MT was at the second slot and district Patiala with 0.81 MT ranked third.
The state government has set up 1,734 procurement centres and activated its total machinery to ensure smooth wheat procurement, the spokesman added.