Despite deficit rainfall, food grain States Punjab and Haryana have got another bumper paddy crop this year. Both have recorded procurement of over 182 lakh metric tonnes (MT) much more than last year.
Punjab has recorded higher procurement of 130 lakh metric tonnes compared to last year’s 118 lakh tonnes, Food and Supplies department officials said on Friday.
Farmers in the State have been released payment of over Rs 14,463 crore so far, a department spokesman said. Paddy procurement in Punjab started on October 1. It hopes to procure 137 MT of paddy, up from 118 tonnes in 2014. Over 95 per cent of the paddy has been procured by Government agencies.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had sanctioned Rs 18,972 crore for paddy procurement in Punjab this season. Sangrur and ludhiana districts have led the State in paddy procurement.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday reviewed the operations of ongoing paddy procurement in the State and status of payments to the farmers at a meeting.
“Badal, in a meeting with senior officers, expressed satisfaction over the smooth, hassle-free paddy procurement. Till date, 130 lakh Metric Tonnes (lMT) of paddy have been procured in Punjab against procurement of 118 lMT of the crop last year”, a spokesperson of the CMO said.
The CM has directed the procurement agencies to complete the entire operation positively by the end of this month, he said, adding Badal also assured the farmers that their payments would be made within 48 hours.
Badal said he is committed to procurement of the crop and has assured that every single grain would be lifted during this season and wherever there was tardy movement of lifting in few mandis, the spokesperson added.
Neighbouring Haryana has seen arrival of over 52 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of paddy against the target of 37 lakh tonnes set for this season. last year, about 38.31 lakh MT was procured during the corresponding period last year.
A spokesman of Haryana Food and Supplies Department said that out of the total arrival, Government procurement agencies have purchased more than 41.59 lakh MT paddy while millers and dealers have purchased over 10.28 lakh MT paddy.
The Food and Supplies Department has purchased more than 18.95 lakh MT of paddy, more than 14.72 lakh MT have been purchased by Hafed, 4.31 lakh MT have been purchased by the Haryana Agro-industries Corporation and 3.59 lakh MT have been purchased by the Haryana Warehousing Corporation.
Giving more details, he said that Karnal had received the maximum amount of paddy, followed by Kurukshetra, Ambala, Kaithal, Fatehabad, Yamunanagar and Sonipat.
The spokesman said that farmers have been advised to clean and dry their harvest properly before bringing them to the market so that they do not have to face any problems in storage due to high moisture content.