U.P. Reports: In the marketing year 2024–2025, government agencies only buy 9.31 LMT of wheat, compared to a target of 60 LMT. Compared to the 2.19 LMT acquired in 2023–24 and the 3.16 LMT in 2022–2023—this is significantly more.
For the third year in a row, Uttar Pradesh has had some of the lowest wheat procurements by government organizations. This is largely because farmers in the state would rather sell their produce to private organizations at a price greater than the minimum support price (MSP) set by the government.
Though this was significantly higher than the 2.19 LMT of wheat procured in 2023–24 and the 3.16 LMT of wheat purchased in 2022–23, the government agencies combined could only purchase 9.31 lakh metric tons (LMTs) of wheat against the target of 60 LMT in the marketing year 2024–25 despite all of their efforts to court farmers.
The state bought 56.41 LMT of wheat at the MSP in 2021–2022 from almost 13 lakh farmers, shattering all previous records.
Even though the government established a record 6,488 wheat procurement centers throughout the state, according to government data, only 1,80,083 of the 4,19,767 farmers registered with the department of food and civil supplies showed up at the government centers to sell their wheat this year. But without clients (farmers), the majority of the centers had little work to do.
Sourabh Babu, commissioner of food and civil supplies, stated: “It is true that the state has not purchased much wheat for the third year in a row. Once more, the difference between the MSP and the market price is the main cause.
He claimed that every attempt was made to get in touch with farmers in order to convince them to sell their wheat to the government organizations at MSP, and that more procurement centers were set up for the convenience of farmers.
“Private agencies offered farmers as much as ₹2,400 per quintal for their wheat, which was much more than the MSP fixed at ₹2,275 per quintal, which is why most farmers preferred to sell their wheat to them,” Sourabh Babu stated. He went on, “But it’s a good thing that farmers are getting paid more.”
Informants pointed to the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a major cause of the recent increase in wheat prices worldwide. Due to supply chain disruptions and decreased wheat exports from two of the biggest producers in the globe, the conflict has caused unprecedented levels of price increases internationally.
An official who asked to remain anonymous stated, “This geopolitical instability has trickled down to the domestic market, creating an environment where farmers are incentivized to seek higher returns outside of government channels.”
According to those with knowledge of the situation, farmers were always discouraged from selling their produce to government agencies due to a number of factors, including corruption at the government purchase centers, payment delays to farmers, and the challenges and expense of transporting produce to the government centers.