By Editorial
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Keeping in view the benefits of farmers as well as keeping traders and middlemen away, the Department of Food and Public Distribution has developed an application ecosystem, which will enable all users with a minimum threshold parameter (MTP) regime for monitoring and strategic decision making. Will help in integration of procurement portals of states.
This process started in October, 2021 with the start of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22. There was a need to use Minimum Threshold Parameters (MTP) in procurement operations to avoid middlemen in procurement and provide best price to the farmers for their produce. The integration with the central portal will go a long way in expediting the resolution of procurement data with the states and release of funds by the central government to the states.
These will be available facilities and benefits
Farmers: Will be able to sell their produce at a reasonable price and avoid distress sales.
Procurement Agencies: With better management of procurement operations, State Agencies and Food Corporation of India (FCI) will be able to procure efficiently with limited resources.
Other stakeholders: Automation and standardization of procurement operations will provide an integrated approach to procurement of food grains and its storage in godowns.
– Online registration of farmers / sharecroppers: name, father’s name, address, mobile number, Aadhar number, bank account details, land details (Khata / Khasra), self-cultivation or land on rent / sharecropping / contract.
-Integration of registered farmer data with the land records portal of the state
– Integration of operations of digitized Mandi/Purchase Center: Buyer/Seller Forms, preparation of Bill of Sale proceeds etc.
Online payment through Expenditure Advance Transfer (EAT) module of PFMS for direct and quick transfer of MSP to farmers.
– Automatic generation of CMR/Wheat Distribution Management-Uploading of Sanction Notes/Wet Check Memos and Billing on Acquisition of Stock (Uttar Pradesh Model)
The data will be sent through API based integration on the proposed unified portal of Government of India, which will provide real time information about the number of beneficiary farmers / sharecroppers, small / marginal farmers, yield, quantity of purchase, payment, list management of central pool stock.
Get rid of middlemen
It is pertinent to mention here that all the states have different scales of implementation of IT based tools. Furthermore, due to the priority of local needs and practices, an all India standard procurement ecosystem did not exist.
Due to variation in procurement systems, both systemic and implementation challenges are faced to implement the schemes of the Central Government. Reconciliation of procurement operations with various states, sometimes a long drawn out exercise, leads to delays in release of funds to the states, which can be avoided. In addition, non-standard procurement operations/processing also lead to avoidable inefficiencies that manifest as intermediaries in procurement operations.
Farmers will get the benefit of Minimum Support Price (MSP)
Undoubtedly, the central government lays great emphasis on the welfare of farmers and MSP based procurement is the traditional way of ensuring that farmers get a fair selling price for their produce. This ultimately helps in achieving the objectives of the Center and implementation of the National Food Security Act. Standardization of operations is essential to help the country achieve greater levels of transparency and efficiency in procurement operations, which ultimately ensures food security for the people of the country.
The Government of India has informed the State Governments and other Public Procurement Agencies at several fora about the requirement of compliance with the Minimum Threshold Parameters for procurement operations. Along with this, the Center has also informed them about the need for integration with the Central Portal of Minimum Threshold Parameters, i.e. Central Foodgrains Procurement Portal (CFPP), during discussions with the respective State Governments of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
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