Central Govt. advises states to enhance milling capacity and estimates procurement of 106 LMT rice (rabi crop) in current KMS 2022-23 and 341.50 LMT wheat crop during the forthcoming RMS 2023-24.

During the first session of the Conference of Food Ministers of all States/UTs., a meeting of State Food Secretaries and Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the chairmanship of Secretary DFPD was held to discuss the procurement arrangements for ensuing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2023-24 and Rabi crop of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2022-23.

A quantity of 341.50 LMT wheat has been estimated for procurement from 10 wheat procuring States during the forthcoming RMS 2023-24, which is much more than actual procurement of 187.92 LMT of wheat during previous RMS 2022-23. In this connection, it worth mentioning that Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh will move 25 LMT, 15 LMT and 20 LMT wheat respectively.

Also, a quantity of 106 LMT rice (rabi crop) has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming rabi crop of current KMS 2022-23 from 11 rice (rabi crop) procuring States. States were advised to enhance milling capacity so that milling of one season gets completed before the commencement of next season and recycling of rice may be avoided.

It is expected that seamless procurement with direct transfer of money into farmer’s account, minimum cost of transportation and human interference free and quick analysis of foodgrains shall be a part of the ecosystem of Food Security Management very soon.

The conference also discussed the issue of account finalization by foodgrain procuring states so that all pending payments are cleared in a time bound manner.

The other issues related to smart PDS and One Nation One Ration Card for seamless delivery of foodgrains to migrant beneficiaries were also discussed. The best practice of command control centre by Andhra Pradesh for real time data on Procurement, storage, Quality and distribution of foodgrains was also discussed for which all states have been urged to learn and adopt the methods to make their systems effective and efficient.

Further, implementation of additional minimum threshold parameters for online procurement operations, i.e. integration of power Validation of milled rice quantity with electricity consumption and Tracking of vehicles used for transporting food grains were also deliberated upon for improving efficiency & transparency in procurement operations.

During the discussion, it emerged that sufficient jute bags are available as per requirement of ensuing season. Issues related to finalization of audited accounts, food subsidy claims and rationalization of food subsidy was also deliberated upon. State Governments were requested to submit their pending bills to FCI and DFPD so that those can be settled in March, 2023.