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Amidst relaxation from lockdown, wheat procurement by government agencies would start across the state from April 15.
The state government has however imposed conditions for enforcing norms of social distancing at procurement centres to prevent spread of coronavirus.
Wheat procurement was earlier scheduled to start from April 1 and end on June 15 but it was postponed to April 15 due to the lockdown.
The UP government has set an ambitious wheat procurement target of 55 lakh MT for the 2020-21 Rabi marketing season.
Government agencies would procure wheat at the rate of Rs 1,925 per quintal, which is the minimum support price.
Despite unseasonal rains and hailstorm this year, Rabi crop has recorded a bumper yield and farmers need the support of official procurement agencies to purchase their agricultural produce.
If the procurement targets are met then it is likely to infuse over Rs 11,000 crore in rural economy, a big boost for the sagging economy.
During the last Rabi season, the state had failed to achieve its target and could log only about 38 lakh MT of wheat as compared to the target of 55 Lakh MT.
Sluggish procurement in 2019-20 Rabi season was attributed to Lok Sabha elections apart from competitive prices in open market.
Following the poor response last year, the government extended wheat procurement window by an additional 10 days to June 25, 2019 to partly achieve its target and keep wheat prices firm in the market to benefit farmers.
Of the target of 55 lakh MT, Food Corporation of India (FCI) will procure 1.5 lakh MT, while the remaining would be purchased by various state government agencies. For this 5,000 procurement centres across UP have been set up. The bulk of 25 lakh MT and 5 lakh MT would be procured by UP Cooperative Federation Limited (UPCFL) which will run 2,516 centres and UP Cooperative Union (UPCU) with 321 centres respectively. The FCI will operate 94 centres and Food department will operate 715 centres.