Paddy procurement in Punjab crosses 100 lakh tonnes

Chandigarh, Oct 29 (UNI) Punjab has reached the magical mark of 100 lakh tonnes in paddy procurement and is now looking at an all time record of 145 lakh tonnes.

As an estimated 4-5 lakh tonnes of paddy are being procured each day in the mandis, Punjab seems set to surpass the 140 lakh tonnes record of 2004-05.

Official figures released today said that market share of official agencies in the procurement pie would be quite high due to bumper crop this year and steep decline of traders share from 18.3 per cent last year to 7.4 per cent this year.

The electronic clearing system introduced by the government in the mandis of two districts this year and online monitoring system introduced all over state by Food and Supplies Minister Adesh Pratap Singh to make payments to the farmers has proved quite successful as Rs 7763.31 crore has been paid to farmers till Monday.

The credit cash limit of Rs 12,623.62 crore sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the procurement of paddy for the kharif season by all the state agencies had been received by the state Finance Department.

Meanwhile the six government agencies and millers have procured over 100, 05,948 tonnes of paddy till Monday. Official agencies share in paddy procurement rose to record 92, 63,441 tonnes (92.6%) as traders share dipped to 7,42,507 tonnes (7.4%), due to ban on export of non-basmati rice.

Pungrain, a state agency maintained its lead in procurement by procuring 29.1 per cent of the total paddy, that is 26,91,973 tonnes. The Central Government Agency, FCI procured only 1, 54,034 tonnes of paddy (1.7 %). The millers procured 7,42,507 tonnes of paddy (7.4 %) by Monday evening.

Ferozepur district maintained its lead in paddy procurement by procuring 11,51,261 tonnes followed by Patiala (9,61,241 tonnes), Ludhiana (9,38,378 tonnes), Sangrur (9,18,245 tonnes) and Moga (8,99,230 tonnes) districts respectively.

The Punjab Food Supply had setup 1622 procurement centres throughout the state to ensure smooth procurement of paddy.

UNI HS BK1633