Arrangements in place for paddy procurement

3,076 purchase centres set up; MSP for A grade paddy is ₹1,510 per quintal

All arrangements have been made to procure paddy at minimum support price in the ongoing Yasangi (rabi) season across Telangana by setting up a total of 3,076 purchase centres keeping in view the massive production of the food crop.

Review meeting

Commissioner of Civil Supplies C.V. Anand reviewed the arrangements for paddy procurement at a meeting held here on Tuesday and it was decided to commence the operations from next week. The department has fixed the target of procurement at 37 lakh tonnes against 8.42 lakh tonnes procured during the last rabi season (2015-16).

Mr. Anand said paddy procurement during the last rabi was done through only 1,288 purchase centres as the production was low due to lack of water in reservoirs and poor groundwater table. “The procurement will be more than four times than the last year and we are expecting market arrivals of 11.35 lakh tonnes in April, 18.92 lakh tonnes in May and 7.57 lakh tonnes in June,” he explained.

Of the 3,076 purchase centres planned for the current rabi, IKP would be handling 1,101, Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) - 1,771 and District Cooperative Marketing Societies (DCMS) and others -204. Instructions were issued to open paddy purchase centres within the reach of the farmers and to plan that no farmer was allowed to wait for a long time for his turn to weigh his produce. Sufficient number of moisture meters, paddy cleaners, winnowing machines, tarpaulins, drinking water, toilets and other basic needs would also be provided. It was also decided that purchase centres should be opened in a radius of 5 km for procurement of 500 to 1,000 tonnes of paddy depending upon the availability of godown space. As unseasonal rains were expected in May and June, the field-level officers were told to utilise schools for storage purpose to avoid damage to the procured paddy, the Commissioner said.

Procurement panel

District-level committees were constituted under the chairmanship of Collectors with representatives from Agriculture, Marketing, Civil Supplies, Transport, DRDA, ITDA, FCI SWC and CWC as members. The committees would supervise procurement operations to ensure MSP to farmers and other related issues. A control room would also be opened to monitor paddy procurement operations, transportation of paddy and to receive complaints related to procurement operations.

Cautioning the field-level officials to be more careful about gunny bags issue, Mr. Anand said it was being expected that 9.40 crore gunny bags would be required for paddy procurement this season and accordingly they were being positioned.