Direct transfer: MSP wheat purchases hit a record; Punjab farmers get Rs 3 lakh per capita

Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have surpassed their earlier data in paddy gross sales to authorities.

The Centre has bought 43.3 million tonne (mt) wheat from farmers within the rabi procurement season that has simply ended, an all-time excessive amount, and up 11% over the earlier winter crop season.

Farmers have acquired a file Rs 84,369 crore of their financial institution accounts for the wheat they bought to the federal government procurement companies led by the Meals Company of India (FCI) since April; for a change all the MSP funds have been routed by way of the direct profit switch (DBT) mechanism this time round. Considerably, farmers in Punjab, who’re on the forefront of a protracted agitation in opposition to the three reform-oriented farm legal guidelines being put in abeyance, are the largest beneficiaries of the MSP transfers.

On a mean, a Punjab farmer fetched Rs 2.95 lakh for the wheat crop she bought to the federal government, in contrast with Rs 2.2 lakh by the farmer in Haryana and simply Rs 93,000 by her counterpart in Uttar Pradesh.

Final 12 months, simply Rs 34,961 crore was transferred to wheat farmers beneath the MSP system, which was 47% of complete MSP procurement of the cereal within the 12 months.

A piece of the farming neighborhood continues to be persevering with the stir in opposition to the farm legal guidelines that sought to restructure advertising and marketing of crops within the nation, and one in every of their chief calls for is authorized assure for MSP system, which they worry might unravel as soon as the legal guidelines are carried out.

Till final 12 months, Punjab and Haryana had selected to the stay out of the DBT system; they joined the scheme for the present rabi season. Whereas Haryana carried out it easily, Punjab put up a resistance, earlier than lastly agreeing to undertake it.

Official companies like FCI buy a couple of third of the wheat from Punjab out of complete amount they procure within the season. This 12 months, Punjab contributed 13.21 mt to the procurement pool, up 4% on 12 months and the very best amount amongst states.

Although the MSP worth of final 12 months’s procurement was Rs 24,474 crore (at Rs 1,925/quintal), the FCI needed to pay market payment (3%), rural growth cess (3%) and arhatiya fee (2.5%) additional, which was estimated to be round Rs 2,080 crore. The Centre has agreed for continuation of arhatiya fee, however shifted from cost of a share of MSP to a hard and fast quantity from final 12 months.

The nation’s wheat output had hit an all-time excessive of 109.24 mt throughout 2020-21 crop 12 months (July-June). Wheat procurement within the nation begins from April 1 yearly and ends in June 30, although over 95% of the entire quantity bought in first two months.

Union meals secretary Sudhanshu Pandey on Monday stated {that a} file amount of 86.2 mt of paddy (value Rs 1,52,169 crore at MSP worth) has been procured in 2020-21 season (October-September) as on July 4, which is 12% larger from the year-ago interval. The Centre expects paddy procurement to achieve 90 mt by the tip of September.

Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have surpassed their earlier data in paddy gross sales to authorities.