Raipur: As per the officials, the paddy procurement for the year 2020-’21 is to start from tomorrow December 1 in Chhattisgarh, in which 21,29,764 farmers have registered to sell their paddy. The State Government has completed all the preparation for this.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has directed officials concerned to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the farmers during the procurement process.
In the cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on November 28, it was decided that paddy procurement at support price would be done from December 1 to January 31, 2021 and corn procurement should be done from December 1 to May 31, 2021.
Paddy would be purchased at Rs. 2305 paddy procurement centers in the state. This year 257 new paddy procurement centers have been established.
In 2020-’21, paddy was sown under an area of more than 27,59,385 hectares in Chhattisgarh. According to the records, the area for paddy cultivation has increased from 19.36 lakh hectares to 27.59 hectares in the last two years.
The government of Chhattisgarh had purchased 80.38 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from 15.71 lakh farmers in the year 2018-’19, while 83.94 lakh metric tonnes of paddy were purchased from 18.38 lakh farmers in the year 2019-’20.
According to an official, “In 2017-’18, 76.47 percent of farmers sold paddy while a total of 92.61 percent of farmers sold paddy in the year 2018-’19. In the last marketing year, 2019-’20, 94.02 percent of farmers in the state sold paddy at the support price.”
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has instructed district administration officials to strictly prevent illegal transport of paddy bordering states. Officials of district administration, police administration and concerned departments of all the districts. Baghel has also directed that farmers carrying paddy from one district to another within the state should not be unduly disturbed.
On Chief Minister’s instruction, a required number of gunny bags are being arranged for the purchase of paddy. It is expected that 4,75,000 gunny bags are required for the procurement of paddy, but the Government of India has approved supply of only 1,43,000 gunny bags to Chhattisgarh, out of which only 56,000 gunny bags have been received. To meet the shortage of gunny bags, the state government is purchasing 70,000 plastic gunny bags.