Wheat procurement is one of the most important work of state governments, because it ensures food distribution and that people do not go hungry. The larger the amount of food grains in government’s stock, the more it can gain in meeting its Public Distribution Commitment at subsidized rates. Also, it can intervene in case of food deficiency and high food inflation. In Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi government has attempted to streamline the process. They have made very strict norms about paying farmers and uploading details online, and the co-operatives which flouted these norms have had their centres shut down. Yogi government has commanded the closure of operations of about 100 procurement centres run by two multi-state cooperative societies, namely National Federation of Farmers’ Procurement, Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd, (NACOF) and ADCO for allegedly defying procurement rules of paying farmers within 72 hours and filing procurement details online within 24 hours.
Moreover, there has been a crackdown on the mafia. The government has taken on the middlemen who used to make a killing at the cost of the farmers and poor people. The Uttar Pradesh government has filed 50 FIRs against Middlemen involved in Wheat Procurement. UP food and civil supplies additional commissioner A K Singh told Business Standard that, “We have filed FIRs against 100 middlemen across the state. He also added, “Since the wheat procurement is progressing at a brisk pace, we are now concentrating on qualitative procurement rather than quantitative procurement.” This is typical of the Yogi government. It has dealt effectively and fearlessly with the mafia in every walk of life. With many years of misrule and lawlessness, there was a mafia for everything in UP. Yogi is cleaning the state up and taking them out of business. The move is likely to benefit farmers and poor consumers too.
In March 2018, Yogi Adityanath government had announced Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 1,735 per quintal (100 kg), along with an additional Rs 10 per quintal as transportation charges. The Yogi government has established about 6,400 procurement centres in the state. Till now, wheat from over 750,000 farmers has been procured, who have been paid about Rs 69 billion through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). Till now, state agencies have successfully managed to procure 4 million tonnes (MT) of wheat, which is 80% of the target. In the year 2018, UP wheat production stood at about 35 Million Tonnes(MT). What happen is that most of the farmers sell their wheats to the local market or they keep it with them for their private consumption. In order to encourage farmers to sell at procurement centres, Yogi Government has announced all the farmers would be paid within 72 hours of the purchase of wheat. All the centres are linked online for greater transparency. Because of Red-Tapism and delay in payment, farmers avoid selling their wheat to the state agencies. Yogi government is devising many policies and ways for the betterment of the farmers. UP government has waived off the loans of lakhs of farmers. Yogi government is working day and night for the development of all the sections of society be it farmers, businessman, students, private employees, women etc. Uttar Pradesh is heading towards becoming Uttam Pradesh.
