Central Government has been striving to assure better returns for the farmers as procurement operations of Pulses and Oilseeds directly from them at Minimum Support Price (MSP) are underway in different parts of the country.

The procurement under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) in Rabi 2020-21 season is currently in progress in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

As on 16th of this month, over 1.33 lakh Metric Tonnes of Pulses and over 29 thousand 264 Metric Tonnes of Oilseeds were procured by NAFED and Food Corporation of India valued at around 785 crore rupee. It has benefited over 1.14 lakh farmers.

During the lockdown period over 97 thousand Metric Tonnes of Rabi Pulses and Oilseeds have been procured under PSS scheme.

Toor pulse is being procured from farmers by NAFED at MSP under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) scheme and also for the buffer stock of pulses. Toor procurement is underway in the States of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and Telangana.

During Kharif Marketing Season 2019-20, over 5.32 lakh Metric Tonnes of Toor has been procured out of which over 29 thousand has been procured in the lockdown period.

In Rajasthan, procurement of pulses and oilseeds in Kota Division was stopped after announcement of lockdown. From 15th of this month, 54 centers in Kota division have started functioning and more number of procurement centres will be made operational in coming days. Procurement in remaining Divisions of Rajasthan is proposed from first week of next month.

Procurement of Mustard seeds and Gram was started in Haryana from 15th of this month in 163 centres.

Preparations have been made for procurement of Gram, Masoor and Mustard in Madhya Pradesh and farmers have been informed to bring their produce to the procurement centres.