Haryana continues to lag behind Punjab in paddy procurement

Chandigarh, Oct 11 (UNI) Haryana contiues to lag far behind Punjab in paddy arrivals, with just 13.28 lakh tonnes having arrived in the mandis in the state as against 57.63 lakh tonnes in the two states.

Punjab Food and Supplies minister Lal Singh said here today that the state was heading for a bumper paddy harvest even though the area under the crop was less than last year. A total 44.35 lakh tonnes had so far arrived in the mandis across the border state.

In Punjab out of the total arrivals, state agency punsup had procured 9.21 lakh tonnes followed by 8.15 procured by Pungrain.

Markfed had procured 7.47 lakh tonnes, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation 4.49 lakh tonnes and Punjab Agro Industries Corporation 4.86 lakh tonnes.

FCI had procured just 1.65 lakh tonnes while the private millers in Punjab have procured 8.48 lakh tonnes to date.

The paddy arrival in Haryana this season which was 13.28 lakh metric tonnes as against 8.25 lakh tonnes during the same period last year, showing an increase of about 62 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

Deputy Chief Minister, Chander Mohan today said that out of the total arrival, over 9.79 lakh tonnes had been procured by the six government agencies at the Minimum Support Price of Rs 610 per quintal besides a bonus of Rs 40 per quintal. About 3.48 lakh tonnes had been purchased by the private millers and dealers.

The Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the food portfolio said that out of the total procurement, 4.20 lakh tonnes had been procured by Hafed, 3.23 lakh tonnes by Food and Supplies Department, 1.20 lakh tonnes by Haryana Agro Industries Corporation, 67,651 tonnes by Confed, 42,330 tonnes by Haryana Warehousing Corporation and 4927 tonnes by FCI.

He said that Kurukshetra district was leading in the state in paddy arrival with 3.57 lakh tonnes followed by Karnal with 2.77 lakh tonnes, Fatehabad 2.33 lakh tonnes, Kaithal 1.85 lakh tonnes and Ambala 61,758 tonnes.

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