Different Government food procurement agencies are likely to miss the wheat collection target given to them for this season.
The interesting fact is that against a target of 2.10 lakh metric tone (mt) of wheat, different food grain agencies have so far i.e. till May 31 been able to collected only 4171.20 mt of wheat from different parts of the Kumaon division and the ongoing wheat procurement season is going to end on June 30.
With the time remaining less than one month now it is highly likely that the Government food procurement agencies including the State food supply department, the cooperate department and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) won’t be able to achieve the wheat procurement target given to them for this season — 2013-2014.
As the private sector is offering better prices of wheat than what the minimum support price has been declared by the Government i.e. Rs 1350 per quintal of wheat, so the farmers are selling their produce to the traders in private sector, said N C Pant, Regional Marketing Officer (RMO), the state food and civil supply department ( Kumaon Division), while talking to The Pioneer.
The basic aim of the Government is to ensure that the farmer ge better returns of their produce. It seems the farmers are getting about Rs 1400 per quintal or more than that from the private sector, that is why they are selling their produce to the traders in private sector, he added.
In the meanwhile, out of the total 4171.20 mt of wheat while the state food supply department has procured 155.90 mt of wheat , about 3648.00 mt of wheat has been procured by the cooperative department and rest 367.30 mt of wheat by the Food Corporation of India( FCI) from different parts of the Kumaon Division till May 31, informed the officials concerned of the food supply department (Kumaon Division).