Farmers must get all necessary facilities, payment should not be delayed: CM Chouhan

Bhopal : Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that all essential facilities should be provided to the farmers at the procurement centres in wheat procurement work. Their crop should be procured on time and there should be no delay in payment after the procurement. Each and every farmer is important to me. No one’s payment should be delayed. Arrangements should be made for immediate transport of the procured crop.

Chief Minister Shri Chouhan was reviewing Rabi procurement preparations in Mantralaya today. Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Shri Bisahulal Singh, Chief Secretary Shri Iqbal Singh Bains, Additional Chief Secretary Shri Manoj Shrivastava, Additional Chief Secretary Shri K.K. Singh, Principal Secretary Shri Faiz Ahmed, Shri Ajit Kesari, Managing Director of Markfed, Shri P. Narhari etc. were present in the meeting.

Wheat procurement from March 22

Wheat will be procured this time from March 22 in Indore and Ujjain divisions and from April 1 in the remaining divisions. Registration for procurement is currently in progress, which will run till February 20. Like last year, this time also 4529 procurement centres are being set up.

Procurement of 125 lakh metric tonnes of wheat estiimated

This time wheat procurement of 125 lakh metric tons is estimated. So far, 4 lakh 13 thousand farmers have registered for wheat procurement. Last year 19 lakh 47 thousand farmers had been registered, out of which 15 lakh 81 thousand farmers sold wheat. This time 20 lakh farmers are expected to register.

Support price of wheat will be Rs 1975

This time the support price of wheat will be Rs. 1975 per quintal against last year’s Rs 1925 per quintal. This time the area under sowing of wheat is 98 lakh 20 thousand hectares.

Non-payment of even one farmer will be considered as crime, recovery from those responsible

Chief Minister Shri Chouhan clearly stated that non-payment of the produce of even a single farmer is a crime. The property of the culprits should be seized. They should be sent to jail and the farmers must be paid. The list of all the farmers whose payment is pending should be made available immediately. Cooperative institutions whose credibility is doubtful, should not be given the work of procurement this time.

Registration of maximum 5 hectare area of Sikmi/ Bataidars

This time the facility of registration of maximum 5 hectare area of Sikmis / Bataidars is being provided for procurement.

Gram, Lentils and Mustard to be procured from March 15

The procurement of gram, lentils and mustard will start from March 15, which will continue till May 15. This time, their total procurement will be done by Markfed. The support price of gram is Rs. 5100, the support price of mustard is Rs. 4650 and the support price of lentil is Rs. 5100 per quintal. Procurement of gram is estimated to be 14.51 lakh tonnes, 1.37 lakh tonnes of lentils and 3.90 lakh tonnes of mustard.

Procurement through self-help groups also

Chief Minister Shri Chouhan said that the procurement work will be given to self-help groups and farmer producer groups like last time. Last year, 9 lakh 78 thousand 526 quintals of wheat was procured by self-help groups and agricultural producer groups at 39 procurement centres, which was 3 percent of the total production.