Paddy procurement up by 16.56 per cent in kharif season

Paddy procurement has touched 658.61 lakh tonne in kharif marketing season (KMS) with an increase of 16.56 per cent compared to the corresponding last year so far, informed Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution here on Wednesday.

The food and consumer affairs ministry said Punjab has alone contributed around 30.79 per cent of the total procurement, which sums up at around 202.82 lakh tonne.

Also, around 95.23 lakh farmers have been benefitted from the ongoing KMS procurement operations with a value of Rs 1.24 lakh crore.

Apart from Punjab, the government has sanctioned procurement of 1.23 lakh tonne from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh under the Price Support Scheme (PSS).

According to the ministry, the proposal from the states was accorded for procurement of 51.92 lakh tone of pulse and oilseeds of Kharif Marketing in 2020.

"The nodal agencies has procured 3,09,307.12 megatonne of moong, urad, tur, groundnut pods and soyabean of around Rs 1,665.82 crores till February 22. It has benefitted around 1.5 crores in eight major Kharif producing south-east states, which included Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan," the food ministry stated.

Also, around 5,089 megatonnes of copra (the perennial crop) worth Rs 52.40 crore has been procured with a benefit of around 4,000 farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The state governments are making necessary arrangements for the commencement of procurement from the date as decided by the respective states based on the arrivals of pulses and oilseeds.

( With inputs from ANI )