Chhattisgarh govt procures over 10 mt of paddy at MSP for the first time

The Chhattisgarh government has procured over 10 million tonnes (mt) of paddy at minimum support price (MSP) for the first time.

The state crossed 10 mt mark on Tuesday, a fortnight before the deadline for the paddy procurement (as on January 18) concludes.

The paddy procurement started on November 1 and will continue till January 31. The Bhupesh Baghel government had set a target to purchase 11 mt of paddy from the farmers at MSP in the current kharif marketing season.

The volume of paddy procured in Chhattisgarh has surged to 9.8 mt in the kharif marketing year 2021-22 from about 5.68 MT in 2017-2018. 

According to officials, the state will probably surpass the target of 11 mt procurement, given the trend of paddy arrival at the centres.

Chhattisgarh’s Food Minister Amarjeet Bhagat said the record paddy purchase had become a symbol of the prosperity of agriculture and farmers in the state. 

The Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana and loan waiver have pulled the farmers back to the fields, Bhagat said.

Under the scheme, the government is paying an input subsidy of Rs 750 per quintal to the farmers. The amount is besides the MSP fixed by the Centre. 

In its election manifesto in 2018, the Congress had promised to purchase paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal.

Over the past four years, the number of farmers registered for selling paddy had considerably increased, Bhagat said. 

For the kharif marketing season 2022-2023, the number of registered farmers for paddy sales reached about 2.5 million, including 0.23 million new farmers.

Similarly, the registered area of paddy has increased over the years. The registered area was 2.44 million hectares in 2017-2018 and it has increased to 3.21 million hectares in the year 2022-2023.

State-run Marketing Federation has set up 2,617 procurement centres across the state. Of the registered farmers, 2.24 million have sold paddy so far. 

The officials said Rs 20,375 crore have been paid to farmers under the bank linking arrangement.