MP to continue wheat purchase despite serious space shortage

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Madhya Pradesh is hopeful of procuring an all-time high 4 million tonnes of food grains for the central pool despite facing an acute space crunch. According to the latest data, the state government agencies have lifted a massive 2.94 million tonne of wheat till Sunday against only 1.35 million tonne purchased last year.A senior food ministry official said the MP government had temporarily suspended wheat purchases due to recent rains, which flooded some of the procurement centres."We are hopeful of purchasing close to 4 million tonne of wheat this year against 2 million tonne achieved last year," a state government official said. The state government would continue procuring till June 15.Wheat procurement in Madhya Pradesh has jumped this year because of record production, estimated to be 8 million tonne, an extra bonus of Rs 100 announced and a minimum support price of Rs 1,100 a quintal announced by the Centre. A 4% purchase tax imposed by the state government on private traders has kept them away from purchasing from farmers this year. The state government has set up more than 2,000 procurement centres across the state compared with 1,300 last year.Meanwhile, despite government procurement in Madhya Pradesh, wheat prices are ruling at around Rs 2,140 per quintal, far above the MSP."Better quality of the crop, demand from Southern states and the Madhya Pradesh government's decision to give Rs 100 per quintal as bonus over and above the MSP have pushed prices up in the state," the official said.Meanwhile, the wheat procurement for the current marketing season across the country has reached 20.7 million tonne against 21.1 million tonne achieved during the same period last year. The government is aiming at purchasing close to 26 million tonne of wheat this year.According to FCI, the government agencies till now have purchased 10,04 million tonne in Punjab while in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the wheat purchase have been 6.27 million tonne and 0.9 million tonne respectively. Rajasthan has contributed 4.25 lakh tonne of wheat to the central pool.Meanwhile, the government has decided to extend the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) of wheat meant for bulk consumers till September 30 in non-procuring states.

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