New Delhi, Feb 29 (IANS) The Centre has fixed the estimates for wheat procurement during the ensuing rabi marketing season 2024-25 in the range of 300-320 lakh metric tonnes after carrying out consultations with the states, the Food Ministry said on Thursday.

Similarly, the estimates for paddy procurement in terms of rice during the kharif marketing season 2023-24 (rabi crop) were fixed in the range of 90 - 100 lakh metric tonnes.

A quantity of around 6 lakh metric tonnes of coarse grains /millets has also been estimated for procurement by the states during the kharif marketing season 2023-24 (Rabi crop). States/UTs were advised to focus on procurement of millets for diversification of crops and enhanced nutrition in dietary patterns.

The estimates were arrived at after a meeting organised here by the Centre’s Department of Food and Public Distribution with State Food Secretaries to discuss the procurement arrangements for the rabi and kharif crops.

Various factors impacting procurement such as forecast of weather conditions, production estimates, and readiness of states were reviewed.

Besides, the Telangana government shared the good practices adopted in respect of Supply Chain Optimisation and indicated a saving of Rs 16 crore annually through this environment friendly initiative by the Central government.

The Uttar Pradesh government shared the successful initiative regarding linking of e-PoS with electronic weighing scale which has effectively ensured supply of foodgrains to the beneficiaries as per their entitled quantity.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare presented their evaluation study on Digital Maturity of State MSP procurement applications. State governments were advised to adopt or improvise their existing applications in line with the standard and core features of AgriStack portal, for bringing about transparency and efficiency in the procurement system, before the start of kharif marketing season 2024-25.

During the meeting, issues relating to Supply Chain Optimisation for transportation of foodgrains from designated depots to Fair Price Shops, improving infrastructure in Procurement Centres, Good Milling Practices and On-boarding Fair Price Shops on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) were also discussed.

Chairman & Managing Director, FCI, Principal Secretary/Secretary (Food) of States, officers from Indian Metrological Department, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Ltd. attended the meeting.