20 states integrate farm land records, other details for paddy procurement

As many as 20 states, including Punjab and Haryana, have captured and integrated key parameters for cross checking during paddy procurement in the ongoing kharif marketing season

As many as 20 states, including Punjab and Haryana, have captured and integrated key parameters such as farmers' land records and digital mandis with a central portal -- a vital information needed for cross checking during paddy procurement in the ongoing kharif marketing season to ensure MSP reaches farmers and not traders, a senior Food Ministry official said on Thursday.

Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are in the advanced stage of integration of the 'Minimum Threshold Parameters (MTP)' which the central government directed to all procuring states to do so in order to keep a check on middlemen in procurement operation and ensure farmers get the minimum support price (MSP), he said.

"There are about 23 key procuring states in the country. Out of which, 20 of them have captured MTPs in their procurement portals which have been integrated with a central foodgrain procurement portal," the official told PTI.

Already, major procuring states like Punjab and Haryana have integrated and procurement has commenced smoothly, he said, and added that three more states are in advanced stage and will complete the process in the next few days.

The minimum threshold parameters are five key details which states are required to capture in their procurement portals to ensure uniformity and inter-operiability among them.

First, states are required to ensure online registration of farmers and sharecroppers, along with their address, mobile number, Aadhaar number, bank account details, land details and among others.

Second, states have to integrate registered farmer data with the state's land record portal. Third, states have to integrate digitized mandi and procurement centre operations for generating buyer and seller forms and bill of sale proceeds, etc.

Four, states have to put in place an online payment mechanism for direct and speedy transfer of MSP to farmers. Fifth, states have to put in place a mechanism for auto generation of billing upon uploading of acceptance note, weight check memo and takeover of the stock.

"The data to flow through API (application programming interface) based integration to the proposed unified Government of India Portal for real time reporting of farmers/sharecroppers benefitted, number of small/marginal farmers, yield, quantity procured, payment made, inventory management of central pool stocks," the ministry said in a statement.

The new mechanism had to be put in place as at present there is no pan-India standard procurement ecosystem for monitoring and strategic decision making, it said.

Due to variations in the procurement systems, both systemic and implementation challenges were seen while implementing the central government schemes, it said.

The new process which began with the onset of the 2021-22 kharif marketing season in October will go a long way in expediting the reconciliation of procurement figures with states and release of funds by central government Centre to the states, it added.

The ministry further said that "standardization of the operations are essential in helping the country achieve greater levels of transparency and efficiency in procurement operations, which ultimately lead to ensuring food security for the people of the country."

This ultimately helps attain the objectives of the Centre and implementation of the National Food Security Act, it added.