E-Paper
Haryana likely to exceed 55-lakh MT paddy procurement target
The procurement agencies have so far purchased nearly 53.66 lakh MT of parmal paddy on MSP of ₹ 2,040-2,060 per quintal by October 30
: Haryana government’s paddy procurement on the minimum support price may surpass the set target of 55 lakh MT, even as officials claim to have stepped up checks to target fake and bogus purchase and issued instructions to procure paddy from genuine farmers after verification.
As per official figures, the procurement agencies have purchased nearly 53.66 lakh MT of parmal paddy on MSP of ₹ 2,040-2,060 per quintal by October 30 and the arrival in most of the mandis was still going on. Thousands of quintals of paddy were still lying unprocured in the grain markets.
Pankaj Agarwal, commissioner and secretary food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department, Haryana, said, “as of now the procurement has not exceeded the set target of 55 lakh MT, We have issued instructions to the ground level officers to procure paddy of genuine farmers after verification, even if the target is exceeded. But there is a vigil to target bogus or fake procurement.”
On the paddy lying unprocured in the mandis, he said that the paddy procurement was still going on but only after verification.
Also, officials monitoring the procurement operations said that there were reports that farmers from Uttar Pradesh were also selling their produce in Haryana mandis which may disturb the procurement estimates.
“Instructions were issued that procurement will be done only after verification of farmers and produce coming to the mandis, to ensure that farmers from other states could not sell their produce in the mandis of the state,” said an official, requesting anonymity.
As per officials of the district food and supplies department, Karnal, arrival of paddy was still going on in most of the mandis of the district as 10,315 quintal paddy arrived on Sunday and a total 29,008 quintal has been procured in the mandis of the district. Officials said that 3.53 lakh quintal paddy was lying unsold in the grain markets.
Arrival in the mandis of Karnal district has already surpassed last year’s 10.66 lakh MT as 10.67 lakh MT has arrived in the grain markets so far.
Despite prospects of lower paddy production due to dwarfing disease and rains, the heavy arrival of paddy in the mandis of the state has led to speculations that farmers from Uttar Pradesh have also been selling their produce in the mandis of the state.
Over 90,000 farmers from the state had reported crop damage of over 3.30 lakh acres on e-Fasal Kshatipurti portal due to waterlogging caused by rains. Moreover, the state agriculture department had earlier predicted an overall loss of 20% in paddy production in the state.
According to official figures, rains had affected around 11 lakh acres of the total 34.5 lakh acres under paddy in the state.
Amid reports of arrival of ‘parmal’ paddy varieties from Uttar Pradesh, the state government had issued strict instructions to the border districts to ensure that the farmers from UP could not sell their produce in Haryana mandis.
Last year, the government had procured 55.30 lakh MT parmal paddy from 3.10 lakh farmers of the state on MSP against 56.54 lakh MT procured in 2020-21.
