UP 4th largest wheat procuring state in country
LUCKNOW : Continuing with aggressive procurement from farmers under the minimum support price (MSP) regime, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as one of the top four wheat procuring states in the country, dislodging Rajasthan from the fourth highest position during the current marketing season.
UP is the highest wheat producing state that alone contributes around one-fourth of the country’s total wheat production. But the state still lags far behind Punjab, MP and Haryana – the top three wheat buyers.
As per the data released by the central government on Wednesday, the country’s total wheat procurement, as on June 22, stood at 432.19 lakh metric tonnes (LMT), which is claimed to be the highest ever. With its share of 56.21 LMT wheat in the total procurement, UP is the fourth-highest procurer in the country after Punjab, MP and Haryana.
Uttar Pradesh is said to have broken its own wheat procurement records this year.
According to the same data, Punjab and Haryana, where farmers have been most vocal against the Centre’s three agriculture laws, alleging that the central government might eliminate the MSP system, have purchased as much as 132.1 LMT and 84.93 LMT of wheat from farmers on the MSP, emerging as the top and the third procurers, respectively.
Madhya Pradesh (MP), which has given neck-to-neck competition to Punjab, has come on the second position by buying 128.08 LMT of wheat from farmers during 2021-22 marketing season that has now almost come to a close in all the states.
Rajasthan’s share in the total wheat procurement has been recorded to be 22.85 LMT, which is the fifth highest, but more than 33 LMT less than that of UP and this is being seen as a big change in the recent years.
“Before the Yogi Adityanath government came to power four years ago, Rajasthan remained the top fourth wheat procurer in the country for several years. But it has now ceded that position to UP as the government started aggressive wheat and paddy purchase in keeping with its 2017 manifesto,” said a senior bureaucrat.
According to a report available with the state’s food and civil supplies department, the average wheat purchase in UP between 2011-12 and 2015-16 was only 24.20 LMT. It indicated that wheat procurement was as low as 6.83 LMT in 2013-14, 6.28 LMT in 2014-15 and 22.67 LMT in 2015-16.
“The total wheat purchase was recorded to be 221.07 LMT in 10 years between 2007 and 2017. Against this, the Yogi Adityanath government bought 218.86 lakh MT of wheat worth Rs 39037.01 crore benefitting a record 46,34,828 farmers in just four years,” said Surya Pratap Shahi, agriculture minister, during a press conference on Wednesday.