The Madhya Pradesh government has claimed to have parked an amount of Rs 1,000 crore to state wheat growers’ accounts against payments for wheat procurement and additional bonus.
State government sources said this ahead of the Union government’s Budget announcement for making minimum support price and bonus or subsidy payments through bank accounts. The state has also announced a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal for wheat.
“This year, we have adopted a system to protect farmers from any delay in payment or middlemen. The money against bonus and procurement has been transferred directly to their accounts,” said a senior government official.
The state government had last week requested bankers to make the process easier for farmers. “The state government had last year paid Rs 4,200 crore for 3.8 million metric tonnes of wheat procurement of which Rs 350 crore were paid to the farmers as bonus,” said the official. “Central government had made an announcement to adopt this system from next year but we are the first state to implement this system from current rabi season,” the official added.
Against the target of 3.5 million tonnes of wheat procurement, so far 850,000 tonnes have been procured. The procurement process will last till May 31 this year. Madhya Pradesh grows some of the finest varieties like Sharbati, Durum and Lok-1 which are high in protein content.
Malwa and Mahakaushal belts are the main region that grows wheat. This year, the wheat production is likely to touch 9.5 million metric tonnes.
