Food and Consumer Welfare Minister Surjya Narayan Patro on Tuesday said that despite crop loss due to drought, untimely rains and pest attacks, paddy procurement in the State would cross the set target.
Patro stated that already 30 per cent of excess paddy has been collected so far. A total of 14.32 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of paddy has been procured from 2,32,075 registered farmers.
“We hope that the total paddy procurement would cross 70 lakh MT in the Kharif season as against the target of 56 lakh MT that was fixed earlier,” said the Minister. The Minister asked millers to speed up the milling process and complete necessary groundwork within the next two months.Besides, no paddy would be supplied to 81 millers out of 750 in the State who are yet to return rice against the stocks allotted to them in the past, informed sources.
However, sources said that despite drought, untimely rains and pest attacks, there has been a bumper paddy production.