Chhattisgarh government has set a target to procure 5.5 million tonnes (MT) of paddy from the farmers through the cooperative societies across the state.
Following heavy rainfall in the month of September that would ultimately delay the final paddy yield, the state government had extended the time of starting paddy procurement by 15 days across the state.
“The state cabinet last night gave approval to the proposal to start paddy procurement in the state from November 15 to February 15,” a state government spokesperson said. Usually, paddy procurement in the state starts from the November 1 and ends on January 31.
The number of paddy procurement centres had also been increased this year. The spokesperson said 294 new procurement centres had been set up for the paddy procurement season 2011-12, taking the number of centres to 1883 across the state. The centres would work under the primary cooperative society at the village level.
The state government had not announced any bonus for the farmers and would procure paddy at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the Union Government. This year, the farmers would get Rs 1080 for a quintal of common variety paddy and Rs 1111 for a quintal of A grade paddy.
The officials with the marketing federation (MARFED) said that the procurement target set for the kharif marketing season would be achieved easily. The agriculture department had set a target to produce 6.2 MT of paddy this year. For the kharif season 2010, a target of 6.1 MT paddy was set and it was achieved.
In the kharif marketing season 2010-11, Chhattisgarh government had procured 6.34 MT of paddy. Of this, 5.11 MT was through government agency and 1.23 MT through the traders.