Madhya Pradesh has procured 5.29 lakh metric tonnes wheat under Minimum Support Price (MSP) in the country by offering an additional Rs 100 per quintal bonus to the farmers, officials said.

The state has procured 5.29 lakh metric tonnes of wheat under MSP from March 15 to March 30 and this exercise will go upto June 15, Madhya Pradesh State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation managing director K C Gupta told PTI on Thursday.

Madhya Pradesh was far ahead of Gujarat and Rajasthan where 24,000 metric tonnes and 313 metric tonnes of wheat was procured till March 29 from March 15, officials said.

Wheat procurement in major wheat producing states - Punjab and Haryana was scheduled to commence today, they added.

Madhya Pradesh was giving Rs 100 bonus per quintal, apart from MSP of Rs 1,100 per 100 kg wheat which was attracting the farmers to sell their produce to government rather than middlemen or others, Gupta said.

Besides this, he said that a four per cent purchase tax has been levied on the wheat purchase by the concerns including MNCs having an annual turnover of more than five crore, which too it appears has boosted the procurement.