New Delhi: Central government’s Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and State Food Secretaries has discussed the procurement arrangements for Rabi crops in Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2024-25 and in Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2023-24. In this regard, a meeting was chaired by Secretary, DFPD on Wednesday in Delhi.
The discussions took place over various factors impacting procurement such as forecast of weather conditions, production estimates, and readiness of States were reviewed. After deliberations, the estimates for wheat procurement during ensuing RMS 2024-25 were fixed in the range of 300-320 LMT. Similarly, the estimates for paddy procurement in term of rice during KMS 2023-24 (Rabi Crop) were fixed in the range of 90 – 100 LMT.
It was also estimated to procure around 6 LMT of coarse grains /millets from the states during the KMS. States were advised to focus on procurement of millets for diversification of crops and enhanced nutrition in dietary patterns.
During the meeting, Telangana informed to adopt the practice of Supply Chain Optimization indicating a saving of Rs 16 Crore annually through this environment friendly initiative. Another state, Uttar Pradesh, talked about the measure regarding linking of e-PoS with electronic weighing scale which has ensured supply of foodgrains to the beneficiaries as per their entitled quantity.
The representatives of states and union territories were also suggested 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 start of KMS 2024-25.
Apart from this, discussns took place regarding Supply Chain Optimization 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).
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