The Department of Food and Public Distribution held a meeting with the food secretaries of the States here in the national capital to discuss the procurement arrangements for Rabi crops for 2024-25 and Kharif crops of 2023-24.
The Secretary chaired the meeting held on February 28. Various factors impacting procurement, such as forecast of weather conditions, production estimates, and readiness of States, were reviewed, as per a ministry release put out on February 29.
After deliberations, the estimates for wheat procurement during the ensuing marketing season 2024-25 were fixed in the range of 300-320 lakh tonnes. Similarly, the estimates for paddy procurement in term of rice during 2023-24 (Rabi Crop) were fixed in the range of 90-100 LMT.
A quantity of around 6.00 lakh tonne of coarse grains /millets (Shri Anna) has also been estimated for procurement by the States during 2023-24 (Rabi crop). States and UTs were advised to focus on the procurement of millets for the diversification of crops and enhanced nutrition in dietary patterns.
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare presented their evaluation study on the Digital Maturity of State MSP procurement applications. State Governments were advised to adopt or improvise their existing applications in line with the standard and core features of the AgriStack portal to bring about transparency and efficiency in the procurement system before the start of KMS 2024-25. This meeting comes at a time when the agitating farmers from Punjab have raised various demands, including an ordinance to ensure legal guarantees for MSPs, in addition to a series of other demands.
MSP stands for Minimum Support Price. It is the minimum rate at which farmers sell their crops to the Government, giving them a sort of income assurance.
In one of the several rounds of talks with the farmer leaders, a panel of three Union Ministers proposed that Government agencies would buy pulses, maize and cotton at the MSP for five years. However, the farmer leaders part of the meeting refused the proposal, saying it was not in favour of farmers.
(with inputs from ANI)
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