The preparations for procuring wheat on support price from farmers in the State have entered the final stage. Procurement will begin simultaneously in the entire State from March 15. Besides online advance registration of farmers for wheat procurement, another important feature in this connection is the process of informing farmers of the date and venue of wheat procurement. Service providers and NIC are prepared to discharge this responsibility by sending SMS to farmers in this connection and have made all the necessary arrangements for it. Importantly, this facility is being provided to farmers free of cost. It may be mentioned that use of SMS for wheat procurement was introduced in Harda district last year and the maiden experiment proved to be successful. Not only farmers, but the Union Government also lauded this novel method. In view of its success, the scheme is being implemented in the entire State this year. During wheat procurement process, farmers have had to face a lot of crowd and other difficulties at procurement centres and to make a night halt over there. These problems were experienced even more in districts like Harda and Hoshangabad where huge quantities of wheat are procured. After analysing last year's experiences, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had instructed the concerning departments 10 months ago to chalk out an SMS scheme for wheat procurement and its implementation in the entire State. Acting immediately on his instructions, the food department and its affiliated units evolved this system by completing all the necessary technical formalities and arrangements during last few months. The first SMS will be sent to the concerning farmers before March 15. Through it, they will be informed about the date of reaching concerning procurement centre, its location and quantity of wheat to be procured from them. The second SMS will be sent as a reminder about the scheduled date of procurement four days before the date. Full details of farmers have been collected during the process of advance registration including their mobile numbers. SMS will be sent on these numbers. This process will save farmers' time. Besides, they will also not have to face the problem of transporting excess quantity of wheat since they will be intimated in advance about the quantity to be procurement from them. The service provider is charging only 2 paisa per SMS and even this amount will be paid by the State Government itself.