Various agencies of the state government procured 6,853 metric tons (MT) of paddy at minimum support price (MSP) from more than 7,163 farmers across the state during the paddy procurement process for 2021-22 Kharif marketing season which started on October 1.

Addressing a high-level meeting on Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed the Food and Civil Supplies department officials to ensure that the system remained smooth at all the paddy purchasing centres.

The district magistrates were told to inspect the purchasing centres themselves and the nodal officers were instructed to be active during the purchase so that there was no delay in payments to the farmers.

Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies, Saurabh Babu, said the process of paddy procurement was being conducted smoothly and official agencies had so far procured 6,853 MT of paddy worth Rs 69.75 crore from farmers. He also said that proper arrangements had been made to protect the paddy in bad weather conditions.

On the lines of wheat purchase, the procurement is being done through the PFMS portal and around 3,173 centres have been set up by the department across that state for the purchase of paddy.

After achieving the target of 66 lakh MT in the last Kharif season, the Food and Civil Supplies department, the nodal agency for procurement operations, is targeting a new record by purchasing 70 lakh MT of paddy in the current season.

This marketing season, paddy is being purchased at an increased MSP of Rs 1,940 per quintal for common paddy and Rs 1,960 per quintal of Grade A paddy. The paddy procurement centres have been geo-tagged with the help of Remote Sensing Application Centre (RSAC).