The appalling loss of lives and the massive blow to the economy due to the deadly second corona wave notwithstanding, a bumper harvest this season have brought smiles to the farmers across Uttar Pradesh. In fact, the state government is on the cusp of breaking its own record in making farm produce purchases directly from farmers this year.
A UP government communiqué released on Saturday said that government agencies purchased around 51.05 lakh metric tons of wheat crop worth Rs 10082.99 crore benefiting more than 11.54 lakh farmers since procurement started on April 1. This year’s purchases topped the procurement of 29.92 LMT in 2020-21. With the current pace, it was expected that the procurement this year might eclipse the all time high procurement of 52.92 LMT in the Rabi marketing season of 2018-19. The procurement of grains will continue in UP till June 15.
For the first time, farmers’ received direct benefits against the sale of their wheat crops without any delay and cuts under ‘One Nation, One MSP, One DBT’ as payments were being directly transferred into the bank accounts of farmers within 72 hours of purchase.
Yogi has already assured the farmers that the procurement process was not limited to mere fulfillment of the prescribed procurement target and hence the government had not fixed any target for wheat procurement.
Procurement of wheat in the ongoing season is continuing smoothly at MSP in the state. “Inspite of 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 Civil Supplies Commissioner, Manish Chauhan.
To ensure that farmers did not face any problem, the government nominated seven purchasing agencies, including Department of Food and Civil 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 Food Corporation of India has purchased 130284.05 MT of the total wheat. The government has hiked the MSP of wheat from Rs 1,925 in 2020-21 to Rs 1,975 this year. Besides, the number of procurement centres was also increased from 5000 last year to 6,000 in 2021.
For the convenience of farmers, an online token system has been arranged this year under which farmers are able to get tokens for the sale of wheat at purchasing centres as per convenience. The geotagging of purchase centres was done by remote sensing application centres to help farmers get location and address of the centres easily. To eliminate middlemen, the state government introduced electronic point of purchase (e-PoP) machines ensuring transparency in the purchase of wheat. Arrangements for masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, sanitization have been made to prevent the farmers from getting infected with coronavirus and a Covid desk has been set up at every centre. Before the monsoon arrives in the state, the government is making arrangements for safe storage of the huge quantity of wheat purchased.