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The procurement of paddy and maize at the support price from farmers will begin in Chhattisgarh from November 1in the ongoing Kharif season, according to officials. Notably, the procurement drive will coincide with the assembly elections due this year-end. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had announced earlier that 20 quintals of paddy per acre and 10 quintals of maize per acre will be procured from farmers. The policy for the 'procurement and custom milling of paddy and maize at the support price' was finalized during the Cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister on Tuesday at his official residence here. While the paddy procurement drive will be carried out from November 1 to January 31, 2024, the maize procurement will continue from November 1 to February 28, said a public relations department official. The cabinet has also decided to extend the validity of the government guarantee (amount of Rs 14, 700 crore) to the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Marketing Federation for padd
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday demanded that the Punjab government procure maize at the minimum support price of Rs 2,090 per quintal to ensure that farmers do not resort to distress sales. In a statement issued here, Badal accused the government of running away from its responsibility. Due to this, the farmers are being forced to sell their produce at Rs 500 to Rs 600 per quintal to private traders, he claimed. Demanding immediate procurement of the entire maize crop at MSP, the SAD president said, "Failing to do so will deal a severe blow to the (crop) diversification attempts of the Punjab government". Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced with much fanfare that maize, sunflower and pulses would be procured at MSP due to which farmers had increased the acreage under these crops, Badal said. "Now, when the time has come to procure the produce, the AAP government has run away from its responsibility," he charged. Besides procuring maize at
The Centre on Tuesday said the country's maize output needs to be increased to 44-45 million tonnes in the next five years amid growing demand for the grain for ethanol production and poultry industry. Union agriculture secretary Manoj Ahuja, speaking at the 9th India Maize Summit organied by industry body Ficci here, also stressed on the need to cut down the losses in the entire value chain of maize in a systematic manner. "Currently, maize production in the country is in the range of 33-34 million tonnes. We need a quantity jump in the maize to 44-45 million tonnes in the next five years in order to meeting the rising demand for ethanol and the poultry industry," Manoj said. There is vast potential to harness in the maize value chain. Making better seed availability, providing storage and marketing linkages, public and private partnerships, among others, should be focused on amid growing threat of climate change, he added. Addressing the event, Maharasthra agriculture minister Ab
Climate change is predicted to reduce maize and cotton yield in Punjab by 13 per cent and 11 per cent by 2050, according to a new study conducted by agriculture economists and scientists at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). Punjab accounts for around 12 per cent of the total cereals produced in the country. The study published in the Mausam journal of the India Meteorological Department earlier this month used rainfall and temperature data collected between 1986 and 2020 to project the impact of climate change on five major crops -- rice, maize, cotton, wheat, and potato -- in the agrarian state. The researchers collected climate data from five weather observatories of Punjab Agricultural University, ie Ludhiana, Patiala, Faridkot, Bathinda, and SBS Nagar. The researchers -- agricultural economist Sunny Kumar, scientist Baljinder Kaur Sidana and PhD scholar Smily Thakur -- said that long-term changes in climatic variables show that the rise in temperature is driving most of the