PATNA: The state cooperative department on Saturday said there has been a jump of 10 lakh metric tonnes in paddy procurement till Saturday this year compared to the entire procurement period last year.
In a joint press conference, Bandana Preyashi, the cooperative department secretary and Vinay Kumar, the food and consumer protection department secretary, said almost 30 lakh tonnes of paddy is procured and stored till Saturday against the Centre’s target of 45 lakh metric tonnes.
The press meet came a day after CM Nitish Kumar was by media persons about the hardships being faced by farmers in paddy procurement.
“Altogether 20.01 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured between November 15, 2019, and April 30, 2020, against the Centre’s target of procuring 30 lakh metric tonne paddy,” Preyashi said, adding, the state would come close to the procurement target set by the Centre for this year.
“This time, more than 30 lakh metric tonnes had already been procured by February 13 and eight more days are still left for completing the process. The deadline for ending the procurement process is February 21 this year. It had started in November last year,” she said, adding easing of the procurement process resulted in high procurement.
Preyashi said the deadline of procurement was March 31, which was extended till April 30, due to Covid-19 pandemic followed by the lockdown.
Preyashi said ‘Kisan Salahkars’ had been used extensively for surveying twice between November and December last year which resulted in large numbers of farmers taking part in the procurement process.
“This time, procurement had already been done from 4.02 lakh farmers. Of them, 3.48 farmers have been paid more than Rs 4,800 crore through their bank accounts as per stipulated time. Last year, MSP provided to farmers was Rs 1815 per quintal for paddy which has increased to Rs 1868 this year,” she added.
She said the easing of the process for farmers along with the increase in the upper limit of procurement to 250 quintals from 200 quintals for raiyyat-category farmers and 100 quintals from 75 quintals for non-raiyyat category farmers, raised the procurement levels.
Preyashi also said that there is no distress selling below the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy in the open market this time yet due to easing of the procurement process.
“Around 6,400 primary agricultural credit societies are involved in procurement this year in comparison to around 5100 PACS last year. Credit limit has been provided to these societies has been increased to 60% from older limit of 40%,” she said.
The food and consumer protection department secretary Vinay Kumar said 6.7 lakh farmers had expressed their willingness to sell paddy to the government.
“1.58 lakh farmers got added further in the list of those willing to sell paddy to government during the contact program taken up in which they were asked about details like the land they possessed and how much paddy they are willing to sell,” he said.
Kumar said from now on the process of contacting, surveying and taking details of farmers would be completed much before initiating the procurement process.
Kumar said this year they stopped purchasing rice from FCI and are supplying state’s rice in the public distribution system.
“We have focused on quick procurement and payment within the stipulated time,” he added.
Kumar said the procurement strategy has been changed to keep touts and the middlemen at bay and to avoid irregularities.
In a joint press conference, Bandana Preyashi, the cooperative department secretary and Vinay Kumar, the food and consumer protection department secretary, said almost 30 lakh tonnes of paddy is procured and stored till Saturday against the Centre’s target of 45 lakh metric tonnes.
The press meet came a day after CM Nitish Kumar was by media persons about the hardships being faced by farmers in paddy procurement.
“Altogether 20.01 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured between November 15, 2019, and April 30, 2020, against the Centre’s target of procuring 30 lakh metric tonne paddy,” Preyashi said, adding, the state would come close to the procurement target set by the Centre for this year.
“This time, more than 30 lakh metric tonnes had already been procured by February 13 and eight more days are still left for completing the process. The deadline for ending the procurement process is February 21 this year. It had started in November last year,” she said, adding easing of the procurement process resulted in high procurement.
Preyashi said the deadline of procurement was March 31, which was extended till April 30, due to Covid-19 pandemic followed by the lockdown.
Preyashi said ‘Kisan Salahkars’ had been used extensively for surveying twice between November and December last year which resulted in large numbers of farmers taking part in the procurement process.
“This time, procurement had already been done from 4.02 lakh farmers. Of them, 3.48 farmers have been paid more than Rs 4,800 crore through their bank accounts as per stipulated time. Last year, MSP provided to farmers was Rs 1815 per quintal for paddy which has increased to Rs 1868 this year,” she added.
She said the easing of the process for farmers along with the increase in the upper limit of procurement to 250 quintals from 200 quintals for raiyyat-category farmers and 100 quintals from 75 quintals for non-raiyyat category farmers, raised the procurement levels.
Preyashi also said that there is no distress selling below the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy in the open market this time yet due to easing of the procurement process.
“Around 6,400 primary agricultural credit societies are involved in procurement this year in comparison to around 5100 PACS last year. Credit limit has been provided to these societies has been increased to 60% from older limit of 40%,” she said.
The food and consumer protection department secretary Vinay Kumar said 6.7 lakh farmers had expressed their willingness to sell paddy to the government.
“1.58 lakh farmers got added further in the list of those willing to sell paddy to government during the contact program taken up in which they were asked about details like the land they possessed and how much paddy they are willing to sell,” he said.
Kumar said from now on the process of contacting, surveying and taking details of farmers would be completed much before initiating the procurement process.
Kumar said this year they stopped purchasing rice from FCI and are supplying state’s rice in the public distribution system.
“We have focused on quick procurement and payment within the stipulated time,” he added.
Kumar said the procurement strategy has been changed to keep touts and the middlemen at bay and to avoid irregularities.
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