Uttar Pradesh has procured a record quantity of 56.41 lakh metric tonne wheat from 12.98 lakh farmers at a minimum support price (MSP). This is an increase of 58% from Rabi marketing season 2020-21, during which the state procured 35.77 lakh metric tonne wheat from 6.64 lakh farmers.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has said that the government has paid Rs 11,141.28 crore to the farmers as MSP in Uttar Pradesh as the state records highest ever procurement of wheat.
According to the UP Food Commissioner, the state government has made arrangements for safe storage of the huge quantity of wheat purchased given the arrival of the monsoon.
“This year we also started geo-tagging the purchase centres by the remote sensing application centre to help farmers get the location and address of the centres easily and to eliminate middlemen, the state government introduced the electronic point of purchase (e-PoP) machines, which ensured transparency in the purchase of wheat,” he said.
The state government had nominated seven purchasing agencies, including the Department of Food and Supplies, PCF, UPSS, UPPCU, SFC, Mandi Parishad and Food Corporation of India and for the convenience of farmers, an online token system had been arranged this year, under which farmers were able to get tokens for the sale of wheat at the purchasing centre as per their convenience.