Chhattisgarh plans mega paddy procurement from dry land

State govt has declared 117 out 150 tehsils as drought hit

Chhattisgarh plans to procure over 7 million tonne (MT) paddy from the farmers at minimum support price (MSP) in the on-going kharif marketing season despite major part of the state has been declared drought-hit.

The state government had officially declared 117 out of 150 tehsils as drought-hit. It had taken a loan of Rs 10,000 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for purchasing paddy from the farmers. Even the state-run Marketing Federation (MARKFED), the nodal agency for procurement, had purchased sacks worth Rs 60 crore.

Given the MSP for the common variety paddy at Rs 1,410 per quintal and Rs 1,450 per quintal for A variety grain, Chhattisgarh stands to purchase about 7 MT paddy from the amount it had taken as loan and over 10 million sacks purchased for Rs 60 crore. The question now arises from where the MARKFED would get the calculated paddy quantity when the yield in about three-fourth part of the state is less than 50 paise.

 

"Why the state government had taken a loan of Rs 10,000 crore and purchased such a huge quantity of sacks is beyond understanding," farmers' leader and former minister Virendra Pandey said. Since the expected quantity of paddy was not going to come at any cost, the possibility of paddy from neighbouring states consumed under shady deal could not be ruled out, he said, adding that the state government should clear the doubt from where it would get over 7 MT paddy this year.

The MARKFED authorities did not respond to queries sent for the version on the issue.

The paddy procurement in the state started on November 16 and would continue till January 31, 2016. The MARKFED had set up 1976 centres under the 1,287 primary agriculture co-operative societies across the state for the purchase. The state government had already revised the estimates for the kharif season 2015-16 following scanty rainfall. Initially, it had set a target to produce 12 million tonnes of paddy but later revised it to 9 million tonnes.

In the kharif marketing season 2014-15, Chhattisgarh had produced about 6.5 MT of paddy at MSP that was likely to further reduce this year. In 2013-14, over 8 million tonnes of paddy was purchased from the farmers.

A senior agriculture department official admitted that the yield would be severely affected this year. "The department had been expected a yield of 18 kilogram rice per hectare this year as against the state's normal productivity of about 35 kilogram per hectare," he added.