Centre to cross check farmers land records before paddy procurement

The procurement of pulses and oilseeds has also increased

In a first, the Centre has decided to cross check land records before the procurement of paddy from next month in a bid to ensure the MSP reaches farmers and not traders, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Monday.

Most procuring states, barring Assam and Uttarakhand as well as Jammu and Kashmir, are ready and have also integrated digital land records with the Centre's nodal procurement agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) for this purpose, he told reporters.

Asserting that this new mechanism is in the interest of farmers, Pandey said the crop cultivated by farmers whether in their own land or