UP procures record 4.65 mn tonnes paddy, barely enough space to store it

Currently, warehouses can store just 5.4 mn tonnes of food grains; State is ramping up capacity to touch 8 mn tonnes in 5 years for optimum procurement

The record paddy procurement of 4.65 million tonnes (MT) so far in the current kharif marketing season is testing the food grain storage capacity in Uttar Pradesh.

According to sources, the state currently has warehousing capacity of nearly 5.4 MT, which has inhibited any procurement beyond a point, although the procurement potential was much higher than the target of 5 MT for paddy this season.

Against the target of 5 MT, the 3,253 state run procurement centres have already clocked nearly 4.65 MT of the cash crop, which corresponds to 93% of the target and counting. In 2015-16, the state had registered