Pace of paddy procurement in Udham Singh Nagar remains low this season as compared to that of the corresponding period last year.
Whereas the procurement agencies collected only 26947.529 metric tone (mt) of paddy till November 24 this year from different parts of Udham Singh Nagar, 2,20,565.035 mt of paddy had been collected by them from the same region during the corresponding period last year.Thus the gap is of 1,93,617.506 mt. Meanwhile, out of 26,947.529 mt of paddy collected from different parts of Udham Singh Nagar till November 24 this season, the cooperative sector has collected 20,351. 129 mt paddy.
Meanwhile 6,596.400 mt of paddy has been procured by the food supply department, as the officials concerned informed.Since the paddy procurement exercise that started from October, 2014 will continue in different parts of the region till January 31 next, the paddy procurement process would gain momentum in due course of time, said the officials concerned of the Udham Singh Nagar district administration.
Notably, the Government has fixed Rs1,360 per quintal for common paddy as minimum support price and Rs1,400 for per quintal of Grade One paddy for this Kharif season.The officials concerned of the Udham Singh Nagar district administration have said that a total 60 paddy purchasing centres have been set up by the procurement agencies in various parts of this district.
However, the officials concerned have asked the farmers to bring their produce to the paddy purchasing centres for sale only after keeping the humidity level below 17 per cent, as per the norms.At the same time, they have also emphasised the need to create awareness on the ongoing paddy procurement drive and give publicity to the existing paddy procurement centres so that the farmers may easily come to these paddy collection centres to sell their produce.
The district administration Udham Singh Nagar has also asked the officials concerned to take necessary steps so that the paddy procurement process could be carried out smoothly and the farmers could get due price of their produce.Mention worthy, apart from Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital district’s Terai region and some parts of Champawat district are the major producers of paddy and other grains in Uttarakhand.