Haryana Government on Thursday claimed to have made all arrangements for the smooth procurement of rabi crops which will start arriving in the mandis from April 1. The Government expects about 86 lakh metric tonnes of wheat to arrive in the mandis of the State this year.
Food and Supplies Minister, Mahender Partap Singh said that to ensure prompt payment to the farmers within 48 to 72 hours, the State Government has made financial arrangement of Rs 11,695 crore for procurement of wheat.
He said that as per estimates of Agriculture Department, wheat has been sown in 25.05 lakh hectares and its production would be about 124 lakh metric tonnes, out of which about 86 lakh metric tonnes is expected to be procured on Minimum Support Price (MSP) by the procurement agencies.
Wheat would be procured by six procuring agencies. The Food and Supplies Department will procure 33 per cent, HAFED 30 per cent, Food Corporation of India 12 per cent, Haryana Warehousing Corporation and Haryana Agro Industries ten per cent each and CONFED five per cent at MSP of `1,350 per quintal.
Similarly, the MSP for Barley has been fixed at `980 per quintal, for Gram `3000 per quintal, Masur `2,900 per quintal, Rapeseed and Mustard `3,000 per quintal and Sunflower `2800 per quintal.
Mahender Partap Singh said that the Food and Supplies Department would set up a control room which would function round-the-clock at the State headquarters as well as the district headquarters well before the commencement of the season.
Each procuring agency would deploy sufficient staff in the mandis allocated to them well in advance so that they could resume procurement operations instantly.