Wheat procurement in food grain states Punjab and Haryana is touching nearly 185 lakh tonnes this season, officials in both states said on Wednesday.
In Punjab, the wheat procurement was over 113 lakh tonnes till Tuesday evening, out of which over 110.5 lakh tonnes has been procured by government agencies. Sangrur district led in procurement with over 10.5 lakh tonnes being procured so far.
Wheat procurement this season is higher than the 105 lakh tonnes procured last year in the same period.
Farmers in Punjab have been given online payment amounting to Rs 13,625 crore. 90 per cent of payments for the wheat procured at minimum support price (MSP) has been made, a spokesman said here, adding that over 82 per cent of the procured wheat has been lifted from the grain markets.
Procurement in both states started on April 1.
In Haryana, over 71.34 lakh tonnes of wheat has arrived so far. "Out of the total wheat arrival in Haryana, five government procuring agencies have purchased 71.28 lakh tonnes and traders have purchased more than 6,012 tonnes," an official said.
Sirsa, Karnal and Jind districts were leading in wheat arrival in Haryana.
Haryana has set a target of procuring 75 lakh tonnes of wheatr this season.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had sanctioned a Cash Credit Limit of Rs 17,994 crore for Punjab and nearly Rs 4,900 crore for Haryana for procurement of wheat this season. Both states had procured over 175 lakh tonnes of wheat last year.
--IANS
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