Wheat procurement in Punjab touches 90 lakh tonnes mark

Chandigarh, May 3 (UNI) Wheat procurement in Punjab touched 90 lakh tonnes mark and the state contributed over 85.74 lakh tonnes to the central pool till date.

According to an official spokesman, six government agencies and private millers had procured more than 89.86 lakh tonnes of wheat till Friday evening, out of which 85.74 lakh tonnes, which was 95.40 per cent of the total procurement, had been procured for the central pool and 1.86 lakh tonnes (2.1%) had been procured for the state pool.

Out of the total procurement of 89,86,330 tonnes of wheat in all the procurement centres of the state, millers had lifted 2.25 lakh tonnes (2.5%) of wheat.

Till May 2, PUNGRAIN had procured 15.88 lakh tonnes (18.5%) whereas MARKFED procured 20.29 lakh tonnes (23.7%). PUNSUP procured 19.53 lakh tonnes (22.8%), PSWC procured 10.92 lakh tonnes (12.7%) whereas PAIC was able to procure 9.90 lakh tonnes (11.5%) of wheat for the central pool. The Central Government agency FCI had been able to procure 9.20 lakh tonnes (10.7%) for the central pool.

The spokesman said that in addition MARKFED procured 64,364 tonnes (34.6%), PUNSUP procured 72,419 tonnes (38.9%) and PAIC procured 35,582 tonnes(0.4%) for the state pool.

He added that Ferozepur District with 10.29 lakh tonnes of procurement was leading in procurement operations whereas Sangrur District with 9.14 lakh tonnes of procurement was at second slot and Ludhiana district with 7.98 lakh tonnes of procurement ranked at third position.

The Punjab Government had made a payment of more than Rs 8000 crore to the farmers of the state for wheat procured upto May 1.

The spokesman said that Punjab Government had already set aside Rs 11176 crores for total procurement season to ensure hassle free payment to the farmers.

UNI PS VN1417