Despite drought, Chhattisgarh procures 4 mt of paddy

The state govt had revised the estimates for the kharif season 2015-16, following scanty rainfall

Over four million tonnes (mt) of paddy had been procured by the Chhattisgarh government for the kharif marketing season 2015-16.

A state government spokesperson said as on January 2, over 4 mt paddy had reached the societies set up by the state-run Chhattisgarh Marketing Federation (Markfed), the nodal agency for paddy procurement in the state. In all, 1,976 centres under the 1,287 primary agriculture co-operative societies had been set up by the Markfed across the state for the purchase at the minimum support price (MSP).

The Centre had fixed the MSP for the common variety paddy at Rs 1,410 per quintal and Rs 1,450 per quintal for A variety grain for the current kharif marketing season. The Chhattisgarh government had taken a loan of Rs 10,000 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Given the preparation, the state government has set target to procure seven mt paddy that had put the procurement under the scanner.

The Markfed officials had denied comment on the issue but farmer leaders had been raising voice over the quantity. The state government had officially declared 117 tehsils of the 150 as drought-hit. The agriculture department officials explained that the pockets other than drought-hit had produced record yield that had compensated the loss. The maximum paddy flow had been reported from Mahasamund district.

The state government had revised the estimates for the kharif season 2015-16, following scanty rainfall. Initially, it had set a target to produce 12 million tonnes of paddy but later revised it to nine million tonnes.

With less than a month left, the officials are expecting that the paddy flow in the societies would speed up as farmers rush with the yield at the last moment. In the kharif marketing season 2014-15, Chhattisgarh had produced about 6.5 million tonnes of paddy at MSP. In 2013-14, over 8 million tonnes of paddy was purchased from the farmers.