Bilaspur: The state government has procured 96.64 lakh tonnes of paddy from 21.62 lakh farmers at the cooperative societies across the state. As the Paddy procurement program ends on 6th February, tension prevails amongst farmers of 7,986 farmers of Bilaspur who are yet awaiting procurement.
Paddy from registered farmers is being procured by the District Co-operative Central Bank through 130 procurement centres. As per the data at the district bank, 1,9,473 farmers sold their paddy. Overall, the bank has registered 1,47,466 farmers for this year.
The paddy procurement in the state began on December 1st. In recent days, an extension of the procurement program from 31st January to 6th February has been announced as several farmers in the state queued up to sell their harvest for this year. As 6th February falls on a Sunday, farmers across the state have begun to rush to procurement centres.