New Delhi, Feb 25 (PTI) The government has estimated procurement of a record 444 lakh tonnes of wheat in the 2022-23 marketing year starting April.

According to an official statement, Union Food Secretary chaired a meeting of state food secretaries and Food Corporation of India (FCI) through video conference to discuss the procurement arrangements for ensuing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2022-23 and Rabi crop of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22.

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The rabi marketing season (RMS) runs from April to March. The 2021-22 Kharif Marketing Season started in October 2021 and will run till September this year.

"A quantity of 444 lakh tonnes of wheat has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming RMS 2022-23, which is more than procurement estimate of previous year RMS 2021-22," the statement said.

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During the Rabi Marketing Season 2021-22, FCI procured an all-time high 433.44 lakh tonnes of wheat, an 11 per cent increase over the previous year.

The government has also estimated that 42.92 lakh tonnes of rice (rabi crop) may be procured during the forthcoming rabi crop of current KMS 2021-22 from seven states.

The estimate of procurement of rice (rabi crop) from state governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana is awaited.

During the meeting, promotion of coarse grains, implementation of minimum threshold parameters for online procurement operations, supply of jute bags and packaging material, storage space, improving efficiency and transparency in procurement operations and online settlement of food subsidy claims were also discussed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)