NEW DELHI: India’s Wheat Bowl Punjab, which lost its top position in procurement for the central pool at Madhya Pradesh in 2020-21, has 132 lakh metric ton (LMT) procurement at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) during. first place was regained by the Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2021-22, which coincided with the climax of the farmers’ movement.
Figures presented to Parliament by the Department of Agriculture on Tuesday show that total wheat sourced in the country has steadily increased, with the five largest wheat-producing states reporting nearly 98% of the country’s total sourced in 2021-22.
Madhya Pradesh, with a procurement of 128 LMT, took second place, followed by Haryana (85 LMT), Uttar Pradesh (56 LMT) and Rajasthan (23 LMT). With the exception of Madhya Pradesh, all four states reported increased sourcing of wheat in the 2021-22 period compared to the previous year. On the flip side, Punjab and Haryana occupy the top two positions in terms of rice sourcing during the ongoing Kharif marketing season on December 5th.
Procurement in these states was done at MSP through the central nodes such as Nafed and Food Corporation of India (FCI) taking into account production, marketable surplus, convenience of farmers and the availability of logistics / infrastructure including storage and transport.
Although the center announces MSP-guaranteed minimum prices each year for 23 crops to be procured for food grains by government agencies for the central pool, procurement is largely limited to rice, wheat, and cotton with other food crops such as legumes and coarse grains receiving little attention . As a result, farmers are mainly focusing on these three MSP-supported crops and on sugarcane, which is purchased from sugar mills at fair and affordable prices (FRP) set by the government, leaving the majority of farmers in most states on Grace to the private traders, who usually buy the other crops at much lower market prices.
Data on the number of farmers who benefited from sourcing from MSP in 2020-21 showed the highest 1.31 billion compared to those three harvests, only 4 lakh farmers producing grams were able to get their produce at Sell MSP. The number of beneficiaries producing coarse grains like jowar, bajra, maize, and ragi was much fewer when compared to the most popular grains like paddy and wheat.
This anomaly is expected to be addressed by the government, which will shortly set up a committee, as recently announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a time when peasant organizations, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are providing legal guarantees for the procurement of all 23 Plants in call for MSP.
Modi, while telling the nation about his government’s decision to repeal agricultural laws on the 19th, reflect the changing requirements of the country and make MSP more effective and transparent. ”
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