Five-fold increase in paddy procurement in Bihar: Deputy CM

Bihar has witnessed a five-fold increase in paddy procurement compared to that of the previous year, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said here today.
Addressing a high-level meeting of the cooperative department, Sushil observed that paddy procurement for the current financial year so far stood at 1.76 lakh ton from 23,440 cultivators.
For the corresponding period in the previous financial year, the procurement was at 31,169 ton from 4,495 paddy growers, he said.
The deputy CM urged the paddy farmers to sell their produce only to Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS) while advising the latter to speed up the process of procurement.

He also said that in addition to the Rs 600 crore given earlier, PACS were being provided with an assistance of another Rs 500 crore and a move was afoot to lower the interest rate for loans given to them by cooperative banks from 11 per cent to eight per cent.