Jharkhand paddy procurement starts on Monday, targets 6 mn quintals

The Jharkhand government has set a target to procure around 6 million quintals of paddy and will begin the exercise from December 15, an official said on Sunday.

Altogether 783 procurement centres have been set up across the state to carry out the exercise, he said.

State Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Minister appealed to his cabinet colleagues, MPs and MLAs to visit the procurement centres in their respective areas and inaugurate the initiative.

He said the government will purchase paddy at Rs 2,450 per quintal from farmers.

The authorities have set a target to procure around 6 million quintals of paddy, according to the state's e-uparjan portal.

The Jharkhand Cabinet had on December 8 decided that farmers of the state will get a bonus of Rs 81 per quintal of paddy in addition to the Centre's minimum support price (MSP) for the crop in the 2025-26 fiscal.

The state council of ministers also approved Rs 48.60 crore as a bonus against paddy procurement from the farmers.

The MSP and a bonus have been fixed at Rs 2,450 per quintal, the official said.

The farmers will also receive a one-time payment for paddy to be purchased by the government, and not in instalments as was the practice earlier, he said.

The BJP, however, accused the government of delaying the paddy procurement and forcing farmers to sell their produce at a minimal price.

Leader of Opposition and Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi, during the winter session, which concluded on Thursday, had alleged,  Farmers are forced to sell their paddy at a meagre price of Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,600 per quintal in the open market, as government procurement has not yet started."  In 2024-25, the government had procured the highest 40.08 lakh quintal of paddy against the target of 60 lakh quintals.

However, in 2023-24 and 2022-23, the procurement was 17.02 and 17.16 lakh quintals, respectively. The state had faced drought situations during the period, as per the e-uparjan portal.