In a bid to ensure smooth procurement process, Haryana Government on Friday issued guidelines for the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) beginning October 1.
The procurement of leviable paddy would begin on October 1 and continue up to December 15 and the procurement of bajra period would be from October 1 to November 15, said a spokesman of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department.
He said the Central Government had fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy at Rs 1,550 per quintal for common variety and for Rs 1,590 per quintal for the grade ‘A’ variety.
In case of coarse grain, the MSP for bajra was Rs 1,425 per quintal, jowar (hybrid) Rs 1,700 per quintal, Maladandi Rs 1,725 per quintal and maize would be procured at MSP of Rs 1,425 per quintal, said he.
On the basis of reports from the Agriculture Department and field, it was estimated that about 45 lakh metric tonnes of leviable paddy would arrive in the mandis and purchase centres of Haryana. Procurement agencies’ share of purchase would be about 44.43 lakh metric tonnes. The rest about 0.47 lakh metric tonnes was expected to be purchased by millers and dealers, said the spokesman.
The leviable paddy purchased by the procurement agencies would have to be milled and the entire Custom Milled Rice (CMR) manufactured from such paddy would have to be delivered to the Central pool by March 2018, he said.
He further said that the State Government is committed to make payments to farmers within 48-72 hours. For this, sufficient cash credit limit for purchase of paddy and bajra is being arranged from the Reserve Bank of India. The state procuring agencies would make the arrangement of funds at their own level. The department would place sufficient funds at the disposal of District Food and Supplies Controllers for procurement purposes, said the spokesman.
The Department would start functioning CONTROl ROOMS AT THE State headquarter as well as district headquarters well before the commencement of season. The other procuring agencies would also set up their control rooms at their state headquarters as well as district headquarters. Each procuring agency would deploy sufficient staff in the mandis allocated to them, he said.
The spokesman said that the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board had already made mandatory for every arthiya to have electric fan or jarnas, sufficient labour, wooden crates, polythene covers.
This facility could be availed by any farmer to bring his produce upto the prescribed specifications. The staff of Market committees and procuring agencies must ensure that every athia in the mandis has made arrangements of this cleaning facility, added he.