UP govt logs record wheat procurement in one month despite Covid-19 outbreak

New Delhi: Procurement of wheat in Uttar Pradesh this year has reached 11.31 lakh metric tonne in the first month since the process started on April one.

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, daily wheat purchase registered 92530 lakh MT on April 29 while last year maximum daily purchase was 72000 MT. This year more wheat has been procured within a month of the commencement of procurement.

Giving the details, Manish Chauhan, Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies Department said that the lifting of grains had already picked up pace and further revealed that so far total purchase of worth Rs 2234 crore has been made from the farmers. Out of this, the payment to the tune of Rs 1433 crore has already been made.

According to him “at the minimum support price (MSP) of 1,975 per quintal, the 11.31 lakh MT of wheat bought by the state government agencies so”. He further added that the payment was directly credited in the farmers’ bank accounts in a smooth and hassle-free manner on the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

As many as 219214 farmers were benefited by getting right price of their produce”, said Manish Chauhan.

Amid the rising cases of coronavirus, the arrangements regarding masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, sanitization, and others are taken care of.

In the Rabi marketing year, the procurement of wheat directly from farmers under the Minimum Support Price Scheme commenced on April 1, 2021. The government has increased the MSP of wheat from Rs 1,925 in 2020-21 to Rs 1,975 in 2021-22.

Huge quantity of wheat is being purchased and the procurement process is running smoothly. To ensure that farmers do not face any problem, the government has nominated seven purchasing agencies, including the Department of Food and Supplies, PCF, UPSS, UPPCU, SFC, Mandi Parishad and Food Corporation of India.

The number of procurement centres has been increased from 5000 last year to 6,000 this time. Given the need to procure the maximum possible grain from farmers and simultaneously ensure physical distancing, a conscious decision was taken by CM Yogi Adityanath to increase the number of purchase centres.

To prevent the farmers from getting infected with the coronavirus, Covid desk has set up at every centre. There is a ban on anyone coming without a mask. Farmers not wearing a mask are being provided through this desk. Social Distancing is being followed. The centers are also providing the facility of handwash, water, sanitizer, thermometer and oximeter to keep a check on the spread of coronavirus.

It is worth noting that even during the peak pandemic, CM Yogi gave instructions to the officials that no loss should be done to any farmer in the state this year. Procurement had suffered last year because of the Covid-induced lockdown.

For benefiting the farmers at the grass-root level, this year, geo-tagging of all storage godowns and purchasing centres has been done by the government through the Remote Sensing Application Center, Lucknow. At the same time, online tokens have been arranged by the government for the convenience of farmers to prevent the COVID spread.