No glitches in harvesting Rabi crops, procurement: Tomar (IANS Exclusive)

He said that pulses and oil seeds had been harvested whereas the harvest of wheat was going on, adding that most states would start their procurement from April 15.

He said that the harvesting was proceeding normally since Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced exemption for agricultural activities from the nationwide lockdown and allowed use of farm labour and machines in the process.

The Minister claimed that harvesting on this scale won’t have been possible in case there was problem of availability of labour and other inputs. He said that local labour apart from migrant labourers had helped in harvesting of Rabi crops.

Tomar said that Food Corporation and Nafed were ready for procurement and the Centre was in touch with the states on the procurement. The states were planning to procure pulses and oil seeds from April 15 and wheat thereafter, the Minister added.

He said Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, which are major wheat-producing states, will start crop procurement from April 15.

Earlier in the day, Tomar held a meeting with Ministry officials at his office here on harvest operations across the country and other farmer-related issues.

Ministers of State Purshottam Rupala and Kailash Chaudhary, Secretary Sanjay Agarwal and other senior ministry officials also attended the meeting, during which the impending harvest of Rabi crops in many states and the procurement process were discussed.

The Minister directed officials to oversee the implementation of the directives issued by the central government in this regard.

(Pramod Kumar Jha can be contacted at pramod.j@ians.in)

–IANS<br>hindi/tsb