Centre to increase wheat procurement from Bihar, Rajasthan UP drastically
wheat procurement from Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, taking it up to 50 LMT in Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2024-25 from last season's 6.5 LMT, said a senior official in the food ministry adding that this will help the government in meeting its procurement target of 310 LMT and restoring the allocation of wheat in various food security programmes.
The government which currently sells 75,000 tonnes of atta and rice under its own private label — Bharat Brand — during a weak, is planning to double this in the next fortnight. It has sold 7.06 LMT of wheat and 3.1 LMT of rice under Bharat brand until now.
These states (Bihar, UP, Rajasthan) have the potential for production but procurement has been less than expected, the official said, adding that several rounds of meetings have been conducted with food secretaries of these states to help with the target. The government will also make payments to the farmers within 48 hours of procurement.
It has identified 59 districts in these states where procurement can be done.
The number of procurement centres has also increased from last season's 10,366 to 12,253 this season and the number of registered farmers has from 2.22 lakh to 3.58 lakhs in RMS 2024-25, an increase of 61.25%.
The government has also engaged the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India (NCCF) to procure the grain from farmers in these states as reported by ET on March 28.
In 2022, after a reduced yield of
