Daijiworld Media Network - Bhopal
Bhopal, May 10: The Madhya Pradesh government has extended the wheat procurement period at Minimum Support Price (MSP) from May 9 to May 23, aiming to ensure that all farmers’ produce is purchased without disruption and that procurement centres continue to function smoothly during peak arrivals.
State Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Govind Singh Rajput said the decision was taken in the interest of farmers, especially to manage the high volume of arrivals at procurement centres across the state.
According to official data, 60.7 lakh metric tonnes of wheat have already been procured from 9.78 lakh farmers in Madhya Pradesh so far this season.
The minister added that procurement operations are being conducted six days a week, from Monday to Saturday, to maintain efficiency and reduce congestion at mandis.
On May 9 alone, 2.79 lakh metric tonnes of wheat were purchased from 31,629 farmers across various procurement centres in the state, he said.
To further ease operations, the government has extended the timing for generating weighing slips from 6 pm to 10 pm, while payment voucher issuance has been allowed until midnight to reduce delays for farmers.
Authorities have also increased the number of weighing scales at procurement centres from four to six, with district administrations empowered to add more units depending on local crowding and demand.
In addition, the capacity and number of servers operated by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) have been upgraded to handle increased online activity during the procurement season.
The Food Department is monitoring procurement activities on an hourly basis to ensure timely resolution of issues and uninterrupted operations across centres.
Officials said that Rs 11,610 crore has already been directly transferred to farmers’ bank accounts under the procurement scheme.
Farmers are currently receiving Rs 2,625 per quintal for wheat, which includes the Centre’s MSP of Rs 2,585 per quintal along with an additional Rs 40 bonus provided by the state government.