Overcoming impediments due to the coronavirus pandemic and other issues during the nationwide lockdown, procurement of wheat by Government agencies this year surpassed last year’s figures of 341.31 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) to touch 341.56 LMT as on May 24.
According to the ministry of food and consumer affairs, the the figure surpasses last year’s procurement by 25,000 tonnes. Punjab is leading with 125.84 LMT followed by Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
Wheat harvesting generally starts towards end of March and procurement commences in the first week of April every year. However, with the imposition of national lockdown on March 23, all operations came to a standstill.
Since the crop was already ready for harvesting, the central government gave relaxation to start agricultural and related activities during the lockdown period and the procurement could start from April 15 in most of the procuring states, officials said.
The ministry said that out of the 341.56 LMT, over 125.84 LMT of wheat has been procured in Punjab, 113.38 LMT in Madhya Pradesh, 70.65 LMT in Haryana, 20.39 LMT in Uttar Pradesh, 10.63 LMT in Rajasthan, 31,000 tonnes in Uttarakhand, 21,000 tonnes in Gujarat, 12,000 tonnes in Chandigarh and 3,000 tonnes in Himachal Pradesh.
Highlighting measures taken for smooth procurement, the ministry said wheat harvesting generally starts towards the end of March and procurement commences in the first week of April every year.
However, with the imposition of the lockdown with effect from March 24, all operations came to a standstill. The crop had ripened by then and was ready for harvesting. Considering this, the central government gave relaxation to start agricultural and related activities during the lockdown period, and the procurement could start from April 15 in most of the procuring states. Haryana started little late on April 20, it said.
Stating that the biggest challenge was to ensure that procurement is done in a “safe manner” during the pandemic, the ministry said this was achieved through a multi-pronged strategy of awareness creation, social distancing and deployment of technology. The number of purchase centres was increased substantially reducing the farmer footfalls in individual purchase centres. New centres were set up using every facility available at gram panchayat level and the numbers were increased sharply in the major procuring states like Punjab where it went up from 1,836 to 3,681, 599 to 1,800 in Haryana and from 3,545 to 4,494 in Madhya Pradesh, it said.
Using technology, farmers were provided specific dates and slots to bring their produce which helped in avoiding overcrowding. Strict social distancing norms were followed and sanitisation activities were undertaken regularly, it said. In Punjab, every farmer was allotted specific spaces earmarked for dumping of stocks and no one else was allowed to enter those areas. Only people who were directly associated were allowed to be present during daily auctions. In addition to the threat of spread of virus, the ministry said procuring agencies faced three major challenges.
The first one was availability of jute bags. As all the jute mills were closed, production of jute bags used for filling of procured wheat stopped, creating a major crisis. This was tackled by using more plastic bags, supplemented by used bags with very strict quality conditions. Through continuous monitoring and timely actions, it could be ensured that the procurement was not stopped due to lack of packaging materials anywhere in the country, the ministry said. The second challenge was to save wheat crops from unseasonal rains in major producing states. This posed a major threat to the farmers as such stocks could not be procured under normal specifications.
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