Raipur: More than 107 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured from farmers under the support price scheme during the current Kharif season in Chhattisgarh, which is higher than the previous record of 98 LMT in 2021-22, state government officials said on Wednesday. With this procurement, Chhattisgarh, popularly known as the 'rice bowl of central India', has become the first state in the country to procure paddy from 23.42 lakh farmers, they claimed.
The three-month-long paddy procurement drive at minimum support price (MSP) concluded in the state on Tuesday. An all-time high record was created with the purchase of more than 107.52 LMT of paddy, a state public relations department official said. Farmers have so far been paid Rs 22,037 crore against paddy procurement, he said.
In the Kharif marketing season 2021-22, 98 LMT of paddy was procured at MSP in the state, he said. Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 2000. Procurement of paddy is done in the state through cooperative societies. As many as 23.42 lakh farmers have sold their paddy at MSP in the ongoing season, while this figure stood at 21.77 lahks in the last season, the official said.
Chhattisgarh holds the second position in the country after Punjab in terms of overall paddy procurement while it is at the top place in terms of the number of farmers selling paddy at the support price in any state, he said. As a result of pro-farmer policies of the government led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, there has been a significant rise in the number of paddy-producing farmers and producers in the state in the last four years, the official said.
An input subsidy of Rs 9,000 per acre is being given to paddy cultivators under the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, he said. Last year, 249 new rice mills were set up in the state, due to which the number of registered millers has increased from 2,035 to 2,284 for custom milling of paddy, the official said.
So far, 90 LMT of the total procured paddy in the current season has been transported for custom milling, he added. (PTI)
