Farmers Movement Archive

Paddy procurement 16% more than last yr’s

Lucknow: Amidst the farm unrest against new farm laws, data from UP food and civil supplies department show paddy purchase shot up by more than 16% during the pandemic-hit 2020-21 fiscal in comparison to 2019-20. Statistics shows state government agencies procured 65.79 lakh metric tonnes paddy in 2020-21 to benefit 12,78,900 farmers — nearly nine lakh metric tonnes more than in 2019-20, when 56.57 lakh metric tonnes was procured from 7,06,549 farmers. Paddy procurement in 2020-21 was 30 lakh metric tonnes more than during the previous Samajwadi Party regime in 2016-17 when 35.14 lakh metric tonnes was purchased from 4,35,320 farmers. A senior official in food and civil supplies department said, higher procurement was possible by setting up more procurement centres and ensuring transparency through digital payment. “These measures helped the state government to build confidence among farmers,” a senior official told TOI. As a matter of fact, minimum support price for paddy was raised from Rs 1,815 per quintal in 2019-20 to 1,868 per quintal in 2020-21. Notably, wheat procurement registered a dip from 37.04 lakh metric tonnes in 2019-20 to 35.76 lakh metric in 2020-21. This was despite the state raising wheat MSP from Rs 1,840 per quintal in 2019-20 to Rs 1,925 in 2020-21. The dip in procurement is significant in comparison to 2018-19 when 52.92 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was procured from over 11 lakh farmers at a MSP of Rs 1,735 per quintal. In comparison, wheat procurement in 2020-21 benefited only 6.63 lakh farmers. The department, the official said, would begin wheat procurement for 2021-22 fiscal from April 1 after cabinet’s nod. Additional chief secretary, agriculture, Devesh Chaturevdi, said, the state government has set a target of setting up 6,000 procurement centres for wheat. “The government would ensure transparency and see that no farmer faces problem,” he said. Maize procurement, on the other hand, recorded a jump from 25.3 metric tonnes in 2019-20 to 1,06,412.68 metric tonnes in 2020-21. Food commissioner Maneesh Chauhan said, the massive difference was because the market rate was higher than government rate, which allowed farmers to sell their produce in the open market, instead of government centres.

The Times of India

2021-03-10

Lucknow