Record wheat procurement in Haryana

Haryana has made a record wheat procurement of 87.27 lakh tonnes this Rabi season, compared with the previous high of 87.16 lakh tonnes in 2012-13, Minister of State for Food and Supplies Karan Dev Kamboj said here on Wednesday.

Sirsa, Karnal and Jind districts led in wheat procurement, of which nearly 99.9 per cent was done by government agencies.

Punjab and Haryana have so far procured over 213.31 lakh tonnes, with Punjab's share over 126.04 lakh tonnes.

He said that the state government had given farmers the highest Minimum Support Price of Rs 1,735 per quintal for wheat.

Last year, 74.25 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was procured, while only 58.86 lakh metric tonnes was procured in 2013-14.

The Reserve Bank of India had sanctioned Rs 4,900 crore to Haryana for wheat procurement this season.

Punjab has disbursed over Rs 18,592 crore to farmers and commission agents for wheat procurement this season.

Officials in Punjab said that of the wheat procured, over 121.36 lakh tonnes has been lifted from the grain markets for storage.

Procurement of wheat in both states started on April 1.

--IANS

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