The wheat procurement drive by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state government units for the 2012-13 season has gathered momentum in the last two weeks.

The procurement of the staple crop in the key growing states of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh has increased in comparison to last year. However, it has slowed down in Punjab because of adverse weather conditions.

Till Thursday, more than 5.5 million tonne (mt) of wheat had been purchased from farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, while the purchase during the same period last year stood only at 4.6 mt.

During 2012-13, the government has set a record procurement target of close to 32 mt in expectation of a bumper wheat crop. Last year, the FCI, along with various state procurement agencies, procured 28.33 mt of wheat.

Madhya Pradesh, where procurement drive initiated by the state civil supplies department commenced a month back, has already crossed the 2-mt mark, against the only 1.4 mt reported last year.

In anticipation of a bumper output, the MP government is aiming to purchase 6.5 mt of wheat during the current rabi marketing season. It had bought 5 mt in the last fiscal.

In Haryana, the agencies have purchased more than 2 mt of wheat from farmers. However, the drive has been sluggish in Punjab, the biggest producer of wheat, where procurement commenced on April 1. The state agencies have purchased around 4 lakh tonne of wheat against the 9 lakh reported in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the MP government is taking up the procurement of wheat aggressively by offering R100 a quintal, a bonus besides the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the Centre.

In a bid to boost production, the government hiked the MSP for wheat to R1,285 per quintal against last year?s R1,120.

In 2010-11 crop year, when the country saw a record 85.93 mt of wheat production, 28.33 mt was procured from farmers. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had recently predicted a record wheat output in excess of 88 mt during 2012-13.

After a recent meeting of state food ministers, Punjab set a wheat-procurement target of 10.8 mt, while Haryana and MP expected to buy 7 mt and 6.5 mt, respectively.

The FCI has more than 30 mt of wheat apart from what is required under the Targeted Public Distribution System.