New Delhi, Jul 6 (IANS): A comprehensive strategy to increase the procurement of coarse grains was discussed and formulated during a conference of food ministers and secretaries of states on Wednesday, which was presided over by Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal.

It was projected during the course of discussions that a total of 26.14 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of coarse grains would be procured in the Kharif marketing season (KMS) 2023-2024, while the expected distribution would be 22.31 LMT.

Some of the other key topics that were discussed extensively during the conference included grading of procurement centres to ensure uniformity and quality, effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and implementation of the SMART–PDS scheme for end-to-end computerisation of procurement and distribution of foodgrains.

Transformation of fair price shops (FPS), as well as an action plan for the implementation of route optimisation study to bring down the distance involved in intra-state distribution, were some of the other issues, which came up for discussion in the conference.

As many as 17 food ministers and officials from 35 states and officials of the union ministry of food and public distribution were present in the meeting.

In a presentation made in the conference, the Centre highlighted the scale of procurement process of foodgrains, which is key to providing food security and stability to domestic prices of foodgrains, official sources said.

Meanwhile addressing the conference, Goyal appreciated the efforts of states in procuring and distribution of foodgrains.

The minister said that all states should work together with the Centre in the spirit of cooperative federalism.

Goyal requested all states to submit their pending claims on dues with the Centre expeditiously so that they can be settled at the earliest.