NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh government has announced an additional bonus of Rs 175 per quintal for wheat farmers to boost the state’s contribution of wheat to the central pool. Madhya Pradesh has become the second-largest contributor of wheat to the central pool, following Punjab. However, the state’s contribution to the central wheat stock has significantly declined in recent years.The central government has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat this year at Rs 2475. After adding a bonus to it, the MP government will procure Rs 2600/q wheat from farmers.The MP Government hopes that the announcement will encourage farmers to visit procurement centres. Wheat procurement commenced in some districts on March 15. However, last year, the government announced a Rs 125/q bonus over and above MSP. However, the results were not as expected. Last year, MP only contributed 48 lakh metric tonnes (LMT), which was against the target of 71 LMT.In 2020, MP was the top contributor to the central pool, contributing 129 LMT and surpassing the traditional states of Punjab and Haryana. Even in 2021, MP contributed 128 LMT to the central pool. Since then, the contribution has dipped to 46 LMT in 2022. This year, the Government targets procuring 80 LMT of wheat out of the countrywide target of 310 LMT. For this, the MP Government formed 4000 procurement centers, where around 3 lakh farmers registered to sell their wheat.MP is the second-largest wheat producer (around 235 LMT) after Uttar Pradesh. However, MP is far ahead in contribution to the central pool compared to UP.The government requires at least 185 LMT of wheat to meet its demand under different welfare schemes and additional wheat requirements for strategic purposes.Adverse weather conditions have impacted public wheat procurement in the past three years.In 2022-23, the government procured only 187 LMT against the target of 444 LMT. Further, in 2023-24, the government procured 262 LMT against the target of 341 LMT, and in 2024-25, the government procured only 267 LMT against the target of 320 LMT.Besides Madhya Pradesh, the Rajasthan government has also announced a Rs 150/q bonus to farmers.In addition to wheat, the MP government has announced that it will give MP paddy farmers Rs 4000/hectare as a support amount.
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