Paddy
procurement in the rice bowl of Uttar Pradesh has touched the 2 million tonnes
(MT) mark.
In
current kharif marketing season, the Yogi Adityanath government is targetting 5
MT in direct paddy procurement. Last season, about 70 percent or 3.5 MT of
paddy could only be procured of the targetted 5 MT.
Thus
far, total operational 3,375 procurement centres of the state procurement agencies
and FCI had procured 2.15 MT of paddy and the state farmers paid nearly Rs
3,335 crore. The prevailing paddy minimum support price (MSP) stands at Rs
1,550 per quintal (100 kg).
UP
food and civil supplies chief marketing officer (CMO) A K Singh said the brisk
pace of paddy procurement had ensured the high level of purchase in the state,
which currently stands at about four times vis-à-vis the corresponding period
last year. This season, the paddy output is estimated at 21.812 MT in UP.
The
state is not only one of the largest paddy producers in India, but a mammoth consumer
of rice under the public distribution system (PDS). It needs about 4 MT of
custom milled rice for PDS annually. If paddy procurement targets are fully
achieved this year, UP farmers would pocket Rs 7,750 crore from direct sale of
the crop to the government agencies.
Paddy,
wheat and sugarcane are the three principal agricultural cash crops in UP.
EOM
