Wheat procurement during the ongoing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2023-24 has progressed smoothly. The progressive procurement of wheat in the current season till 30, May 2023 is 262 Lakh Metric Ton (LMT) which has already surpassed last year’s total procurement of 188 LMT by 74 LMT. About 21.27 Lakh farmers have already been benefitted from the ongoing wheat procurement operations with Minimum Support Price (MSP) outflow of about Rs. 47,000 crores. Major contribution in the procurement has come from three procuring states of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana with procurement of 121.27 LMT, 70.98 LMT and 63.17 LMT respectively.
The major contributing factors in healthy procurement this year has been the grant of relaxation by the Government of India in quality specifications of wheat affected due to untimely rains; opening of procurement centres at village/ panchayat level; carrying out procurement through Co-operative Societies/ Gram Panchayats/ Arhatias etc. in addition to designated procurement centres for better outreach and permission to engage FPOs for procurement operations.
