paddy: Government’s paddy procurement reaches 443.49 lakh tonnes in October-December

The government’s paddy procurement at MSP reached 443.49 lakh tonnes so far in the ongoing marketing year that commenced from October 2021, with the maximum quantities being purchased from Punjab, Haryana and Telangana, the food ministry said on Monday.

About 186.85 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured from Punjab, 55.30 lakh tonnes from Haryana, 52.88 lakh tonnes from Telangana, 47.20 lakh tonnes from Chhattisgarh, 38 lakh tonnes from Uttar Pradesh, 15.14 lakh tonnes from Madhya Pradesh during October-December 26 of this marketing year, it said.

The ministry, in a statement, said more than 47 lakh farmers have benefited from the minimum support price (MSP) value of Rs 86,924.46 crore so far.

During the full marketing year 2020-21 (October-September), the government had procured 894.32 lakh tonnes of paddy benefitting 1.31 crore farmers with the MSP value of Rs 1,68,848.65 crore.

Paddy procurement started in October 2021 and continues till September 2022.

The procurement is undertaken at MSP by state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) as well as state organisations.