Adequate wheat procurement expected in coming season

ew Delhi, Feb 12 (UNI) In order to meet the requirement of Public Distribution System (PDS) and mantain the buffer stock, the Government today unveiled its plans to procure sufficient quanity of wheat in the 2007-08 marketing season.

The decision, which came as a relief to the wheat cultivators, was taken today at a meeting of the Food secretaries of all wheat growing states here.

Food and Public Distribution Secretary T Nand Kumar called upon the state secretaries to take advance actions so that the procurement operations run smoothly in all procurement centres of their states, which will create a convenient atmosphere for farmers to sell their produce.

As per the second advance estimates compiled by the Agriculture Ministry, wheat production in the present Rabi is likely to be above 72.5 million tonnes as compared to 69.4 million tonnes last year.

Even after considering the rise in direct purchases by traders and mills in recent years, the Food secretaries of wheat growing states felt that the FCI and state agencies are in a position to procure substantially higher quantities of wheat this year, as compared to 92.3 lakh tonnes of wheat procurement in last Rabi.

The Minimum Support Price (MSP) of wheat for the 2007-08 market season is Rs 750 per quintal.

He also emphasised that especially Madhya pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh would need to strengthen their procurement infrastrucre as a signficant increase in production was expected from these states.

Moreover, FCI and state agencies had been directed to strictly monitor all the procurement centres in order to mantain the quality of the procred grain.

Apart from these, it was also decided in the meeting that additional storage arragements would be made available in all wheat growing states and sufficient funds would be provided to the agencies for making payments to the wheat cultivators immediately on delivery.

UNI