Paddy procurement begins today

The stage is all set for paddy procurement, which is going to start on Wednesday, with the district administration claiming to have made all arrangements in this regard.

The stage is all set for paddy procurement, which is going to start on Wednesday, with the district administration claiming to have made all arrangements in this regard.

HT Image

The Patiala district administration is expecting around 11.50 lakh tonne paddy produce which will be procured at around 103 purchasing centres across the district.

Patiala district food and civil supply (FCS) officer Ajayveer Singh Sarao said that all the arrangements are in place and meetings have been conducted with the mandi board and other department concerned to ensure that farmers should not face any problem.

“Adequate arrangement of gunny bags and labourers have been made for convenience of farmers. Besides, procurement agencies have been directed to ensure proper arrangements of transportation to avoid glut of paddy at purchasing centres,” Sarao said.

He said that officials have been directed to coordinate with the banks concerned for direct payments to farmers as well as commission agents.

He added that there was no dearth of storage capacity as several meetings with rice mill and sheller owners were held in this regard from time to time.

“We generally face shortage of storage space during wheat procurement, while in case of paddy we have the option to store it at shellers and rice mills”, he said.

The Patiala district has around 500 private shellers.