 "Chhattisgarh procures 5.7 MT of paddy ahead of deadline")
The Chhattisgarh government today said that it had procured about 5.74 million tonnes of paddy till January 27 at the minimum support price (MSP) during the kharif marketing season of 2015-16, despite severe drought.
The state government has set a procurement target of 6.5 million tonnes and is hopeful of meeting it. The procurement process is set to end on January 31.
“The areas that were not affected by the drought had recorded bumper crop that resulted in compensating the loss,” a senior agriculture department official said.
The state was hit by severe drought this year as the state government officially announced 117 tehsils of the 150 in the state drought-hit where the yield was below 50 paise.
The district of Janjgir-Champa topped the list with over 6,00,000 tonnes paddy sold by the farmers at the societies, followed by Mahasamund where 5,70,000 tonnes had been procured.
State-run nodal agency for paddy procurement, Chhattisgarh Marketing Federation (MARKFED), had set up 1,976 centres under the 1,287 primary agriculture co-operative societies across the state for the purchase. Till January 2, over four million tonnes of paddy had arrived in the societies.
Initially, Chhattisgarh had set a target to produce 12 million tonnes of paddy in 2015-16, but later revised it to nine million tonnes following scanty rainfall.
