An Inter-State Analysis of Procurement of Food Grains and Role of APMC Mandis in India

The Public Distribution System is a mature system for distributing food to vulnerable people in India. Procurement is an essential process for the supply of basic staple food under the public distribution system. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the variables impacting procurement of wheat and rice in U.P., Punjab and Haryana from 1997–98 to 2022–23. The first impacting variable is area served per APMC Mandi and the second variable is production of wheat and rice. The statistical results highlight the significant positive impact of production on the procurement of wheat and rice in all three states. However, the area served by APMC Mandis has come out to be a significant factor to impact the procurement of wheat in the case of Punjab only and no significant role of these Mandis is visible for U.P. and Haryana. The study concludes that there is a bias in the procurement policy, as the procurement of food grains is largely done from Punjab and Haryana, but U.P., despite being the largest producer of wheat and second largest producer of rice, has been lagging in terms of the procurement of food grains for meeting the food security concerns through Public Distribution System. Also, the farmers, despite being registered on the procurement portal for the sale of grains, are not getting benefitted of procurement process. This study concludes with relevant policy recommendations to improve procurement practices uniformly across India’s major wheat and rice producing states.