Haryana government has made arrangements for the procurement of 80 Lakh tonnes of wheat at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,735 per quintal for the current Rabi season 2018 as compared to 74.25 Lakh tonnes of wheat procured at the MSP of Rs 1,625 during last season.

While addressing a Press conference on Monday Chief Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Ram Niwas said, “Each and every grain of wheat crop produced by farmers will be procured in the state. The Agriculture Department has estimated the production of about 117.80 Lakh tonnes of wheat in the state for Rabi 2018. Through Finance Department, Rs 4900 Crore have been made available from RBI for procurement.”

He said that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will procure 12 per cent of wheat and the rest 88 per cent would be procured by State Procurement Agencies. Hafed would procure 40 per cent of wheat, Food and Supplies 33 per cent, Haryana Warehousing Corporation, 15 per cent and Food Corporation of India 12 per cent.

The guidelines and directions and procurement policy have been issued to all DCs, Managing Directors of all Procurement Agencies and District Controllers.

The wheat would be procured with a moisture content of 12 per cent as per parameters issued for the procurement by Government of India. Following the parameters, the farmers have also been appealed to bring wheat with moisture content of 12 per cent for easy procurement process, he added.

Ram Niwas said that all the DCs had been directed to inspect mandis before the start of procurement to oversee and ensure all arrangements are in place and avoid any inconvenience to the farmers while the Superintendents of Police (SPs) had also been directed to depute additional teams for ensuring safety and security of mandis and for traffic control.

Detailing about the arrangements, he said that all the 383 mandis (grain markets) of the state already stand allotted to various procurement agencies for the smooth procurement operations and for the convenience of the farmers.

As many as 2,66,370 gunny bales have already been made available at the district level by 25 March. For the procurement of the current rabi season, about 41 Lakh metric tonnes storage facility was available and applications had been invited from private firms for making more storage available. Almost all labour and transport contractors had been appointed in the mandis till date.

The government has made all the funds available to procure wheat of farmers and they would be paid within 48 to 72 hours of procurement. Necessary arrangements of water, resting place and toilets have been made in the mandis.

Deputy Commissioners (DCs) have been directed to inspect mandis before the start of procurement to oversee and ensure all arrangements are in place and avoid any inconvenience to the farmers, he added.