New Delhi, Jun 4 (IANS): The Centre on Thursday said that wheat procurement increased by 5.44 percent, in comparison to last year's total purchases, during the current Rabi Marketing Season (RMS).

It also said that wheat was procured with an all-time high MSP value of Rs 81,196 crore during the current RMS.

Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said that during the current RMS, procurement of wheat is continuing smoothly in the procuring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir at MSP, and up to June 2, a quantity of over 411.12 lakh metric tons (LMT) has been procured against the last year's total purchase of 389.92 LMT.

"About 44.43 lakh farmers have already benefited from the ongoing RMS procurement operations with an MSP value of Rs 81,196.20 crore, out of which an amount of Rs 76,055.71 crore has already been transferred to farmers across the country. About Rs 26,103.89 crore in Punjab and about Rs 16,706.33 crore in Haryana has been transferred directly into farmers' accounts till now," he said.

Of the total purchase, a major contribution has been made by Punjab 132.27 LMT (32.17 per cent), which is an all-time high, Haryana 84.93 LMT (20.65 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh 128.08 LMT (31.15 per cent) up to June 2.

Pandey said that a new chapter has been added in the history of public procurement this year when Haryana and Punjab also switched from indirect payment of MSP to direct online transfer of benefits to farmers' bank accounts by all the procuring agencies as per direction of the Centre, and for the first time, they have received direct benefits against the sale of their wheat crops without any delay and cuts under "One Nation, One MSP, One DBT".

"Paddy procurement in the ongoing Kharif 2020-21 season is continuing smoothly in the procuring states with purchase of over 799.74 LMTs of paddy up to June 2 against the last year corresponding purchase of 728.49 LMT. About 118.60 lakh farmers have already been benefited from the ongoing KMS procurement operations with an MSP value of Rs 1,50,990.91 crore out of which an amount of Rs 1,38,330.12 crore of MSP have been transferred directly into farmers' account up to June 2," he said.