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During the past few years, the state government had offered Rs 150 per quintal bonus to wheat growers. The first phase of procurement will start in Bhopal, Ujjain, Indore and Narmadapuram divisions and will last till May 19. The second phase will start on March 25 in Chambal, Gwalior, Rewa, Shahdol, Jabalpur and Sagar divisions and will end on May 26. The commodity will be procured at 2,974 government owned procurement centers.
The central government had barred the state governments to offer bonus on wheat procurement. However, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said his government would ensure that the fund allocated for the bonus reached them in some form or the other. The wheat at government procurement centres would fetch a minimum price of Rs 1,450 per quintal.
However there is a fund constraint to procure such a huge quantity of the grain. "The Central Government will be urged to make available adequate funds. The Chief Minister has said that he would hold discussions with the Union Minister for Food and Union Finance Minister in this regard," a government statement said.
As many as 18,77,000 wheat growers have registered to sell wheat at government-owned procurement centers. "Of them 17,92,000 have been verified," the statement said, "As many as 190,000 farmers are new to the procurement system."
State has often faced shortage of gunny bags for storage of wheat each year. But this year the state authorities have made arrangements for 25.8 million gunny sacks which are sufficient to procure a minimum of six million tonnes of wheat. As of now the state has 11.1 million tonne storage capacity. The state is expecting 18.5 million tonnes of wheat from acreage of 5.81 million hectares.
