Centre ensures food security through transparent policy for foodgrains procurement
1 min read 23 Mar 2023, 08:48 PM ISTThe Centre has fixed an estimate of 34.2 million tonnes wheat procurement through Food Corp of India for 2023-24 rabi marketing season
PremiumThe Centre is committed to ensure food security through a transparent and uniform policy for procurement of foodgrains at Minimum Support Price (MSP) by government agencies across the country, it stated on Thursday.
The Centre has fixed an estimate of 34.2 million tonnes (MT) wheat procurement through Food Corporation of India (FCI) for 2023-24 rabi marketing season.
The government in its second advance estimate pegged wheat production in the 2022-23 (July-June) at 112.2 million tonne against 107.7 million tonne predicted last season.
Agencies, including FCI opened sufficient numbers of procurement centres are opened in view the procurement potential and geographical spread of the state concerned. Large number of temporary purchase centres in addition to the existing mandis and depots or godowns are also established at key points for the convenience of the farmers.
To enable farmers to take empowered decision on cultivation of crop, the government announces MSP well before the sowing season. It makes farmers aware of the quality specifications and purchase system to facilitate the farmers to bring their produce conforming to the specifications.
FCI and most of the state Governments have developed their own online procurement system, which ushers in transparency and convenience to the farmers through proper registration and monitoring of actual procurement.
Through e-procurement module deployed by procuring agencies, farmers get latest information regarding MSP declared, nearest purchase center, date of procurement etc. This not only has reduced the waiting period for delivery of stock by the farmers but also enables the farmer to deliver stock as per his convenience in the nearest mandi.
FCI provides foodgrains to the state governments for its distribution under various schemes as per allocation made by Government of India in order to provide Food Security to the Nation.
The government is implementing the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) that covers up to 75% of rural population and up to 50% of urban population, providing free foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thus covering about two-thirds of the total population which at Census 2011 comes to 81.35 crore.
