Paddy procurement exceeds last year total procurement

Chandigarh, Nov 9 (UNI) Over 127.03 lakh tonnes of paddy were procured in Punjab till yesterday exceeding the total procurement of 126.72 lakh tonnes recorded last year.

The state had recorded highest procurement of 142 lakh tonnes in the year 2004-05.

According to an official spokesman, though paddy procurement has slowed down but Punjab was hopeful of creating a new record in paddy procurement keeping in view bumper crop and late arrival of paddy in mandis this year.

The six government agencies and millers procured over 127,03,267 tonnes of paddy till yesterday.

Out of the total procurement Pungrain procured 34,97,531 tonnes of paddy (29.8%), Markfed procured 26,89,277 tonnes of paddy (22.9%).

Punsup procured 26,41,125 tonnes of paddy (22.5%), Punjab State Warehousing Corporation procured 14,58,811 tonnes of paddy (12.4%) besides 12,30,104 tonnes of paddy (10.5%) procured by Punjab Agro.

The Central Government Agency FCI procured only 20,25,39 tonnes of paddy (1.7%) against the target of 10 per cent procurement given to it. The millers procured 9,83,553 tonnes of paddy (7.7 %) by Saturday.

Ludhiana district is leading in procurement with 15,75,493 followed by Sangrur district with 14,32,121 tonnes, Ferozepur 12,01,959 tonnes.

The six government agencies have paid over Rs 9393.13 crores for paddy procured by agencies current Kharif Marketing Season.

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