Jammu: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan, Tuesday convened a meeting to review progress on procurement of wheat crop for the Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2021-22.
Advisor had threadbare discussion on various issues regarding the subject which inter alia included arrangement of gunny bags as per the target revised from 1.00 lakh quintal to 2.00 lakh quintal, payment to farmers within 72 hours of procurement and extension of procurement period due to prevailing Covid-19 restrictions.
It was informed that the motive behind opening of wheat procurement centres was to ensure that the farmers must get at least Minimum Support Price (MSP) at their doorsteps by-passing the middleman as government has approved rate of wheat at Rs. 1975 per quintal which will be procured by the Food Corporation of India.
It was informed that around 20 wheat procurement centres have been opened to facilitate procurement of wheat in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. The purpose of establishing these procurement centres was to ensure that farmers may not have to sell their produce less than MSP of Rs. 1975 per quintal and rather should get either equal or more than Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Advisor Khan directed the concerned departments to expedite the process of disbursement of payment to the farmers.
Director Agriculture briefed Advisor about the arrangements being put in place regarding gunny bags, logistic support and other necessary facilities for procurement mandies by the Food Corporation of India in coordination with the Agriculture Department. He informed that around 76755.5 quintal of wheat has been procured while as Rs. 1515.905 have been deposited directly in the accounts of the concerned farmers.
It was decided in the meeting to extend the procurement period for 10 more days so that farmers get benefitted completely to sell their crops. The initial target of 1.00 lakh quintal was fixed with a further provision of 2.00 lakh qunital based on the progress of procurement in mandies.
The meeting was attended by Director Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare, Jammu, K K Sharma; General Manager FCI, Jammu, N R Pradhan; Additional Secretary, FCS&CA, Jugal Kishore; Chief Agriculture Officer, Jammu, A S Reen; Manager QC, FCI, Gopal Krishan and other concerned officials.
