300,000 tonnes procured against 1.6 mn target

Paddy procurement in Uttar Pradesh continues to be sluggish, with only 300,000 tonnes procured so far against the target of 1.6 million tonnes for this season.

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One of the main reasons for slow procurement is shortfall in production due to the severe drought situation this year, although late monsoon revival helped the situation to some extent.

This year, the area under paddy has shrunk to under five million hectares compared to six million hectares last year. The production is estimated around 9.8 million tonnes vis-à-vis bumper crop of 13 million tonnes last year.

According to official figures, the state government had paid about Rs 283 crore to over 56,000 paddy farmers.

The state government has set up 2,079 procurement centres, while due to low paddy output, Food Corporation of India (FCI) is not engaged in the procurement.

Earlier, UP food and civil supplies Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Mehboob Hasan Khan had told Business Standard that the state government was more concerned about ensuring Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers than procurement target alone. He claimed the government had sufficient buffer stock for at least a year.

MSP this year stands at Rs 1,000, including bonus component of Rs 50 compared to MSP of Rs 900 last season.

UP rice millers have to give 75 per cent of rice to government as levy on predetermined rates for use in PDS, while under custom milling, the government procures paddy from farmers and gets it milled by paying incidental charges.

UP Rice Millers’ Association secretary P C Kanodia said the millers might procure paddy from other states like Bihar due to low domestic production. There are about 2,000 and 8,000 rice mills respectively in the organised and unorganised sectors in UP.

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