UP Purchases 51 LMT of Wheat; to Break its Own Record

The Uttar Pradesh government is on the verge of breaking its record of an all-time high. The State has so far purchased around 51.05 LMT of the crop benefitting more than 11.54 lakh farmers since its commencement on April 1. While the figure for the corresponding period in the procurement season 2020-21 was just 29.92 LMT.

The officials expressed excitement over the current procurement pace and said that they may cross all-time high record procurement of 52.92 LMT made in the Rabi Marketing Season of 2018-19. This year’s purchase is expected to break the previous record, which was also made in the governance of Yogi Adityanath. The procurement will continue till June 15 in the State.

The procurement of wheat in the ongoing season is continuing smoothly in Uttar Pradesh at MSP. “Despite the tough situation arising from the second wave of Covid pandemic, we are purchasing almost 1 LMT of wheat every day. On June 11, around 1.19 LMT was procured from the farmers,” informed Food and Supply Commissioner Maneesh Chauhan.

The Yogi-led government in UP has purchased wheat worth Rs 100,82.99 crore from 11.54 lakh farmers. For the first time, the farmers’ have received direct benefits against the sale of their wheat crops without any delay and cuts under “One Nation, One MSP, One DBT”. The payment is being directly transferred into the bank accounts of farmers within 72 hours of purchase.

Yogi has already assured the farmers that the procurement process is not limited to the mere fulfilment of the prescribed procurement target. This year, the government has not fixed any target for wheat procurement.

A huge quantity of wheat is being purchased and the procurement process is running smoothly. To ensure that farmers do not face any problem, the government has nominated seven purchasing agencies, including the Department of Food and Supplies, PCF, UPSS, UPPCU, SFC, Mandi Parishad and Food Corporation of India. So far, the Food Department has procured 1334404.911 MT, PCF 2402709.753 MT, UPSS 404862.3607 MT, UPPCU 588625.7717 MT, SFC 104389.326 MT, Mandi Parishad 140111.824 MT and the FCI has purchased 130284.05 MT of the total wheat.

Before the monsoon arrives, the Uttar Pradesh government is also making all arrangements for safe storage of the huge quantity of wheat purchased.

For the convenience of farmers, an online token system has been arranged this year under which farmers can get tokens for the sale of wheat at the purchasing centre as per their convenience.

The geotagging of the purchase centres is being done by the remote sensing application centre to help farmers get the location and address of the centres easily. To eliminate the middlemen, the State government has introduced the electronic point of purchase (e-PoP) machines ensuring transparency in the purchase of wheat.

Amid the rising cases of coronavirus, the arrangements regarding wearing masks, physical distancing, hand hygiene, sanitisation, and others are taken care of. To prevent the farmers from getting infected with the coronavirus, the Covid desk has been set up at every centre. Because of the warning of rain, the government is taking all kinds of precautions to save the wheat.

The government has increased the MSP of wheat from Rs 1,925 in 2020-21 to Rs 1,975 in 2021-22. The number of procurement centres has also been increased from 5,000 last year to 6,000 this time.

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