Chhattisgarh: Poll sop to farmers leads to slowdown of paddy procurement
Raipur: The pledge by both Congress and BJP to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy, if voted to power in Chhattisgarh in the just concluded assembly polls, has led to the slowdown of the procurement of the grain in the state.
In rural Chhattisgarh, a section of farmers have chosen to wait for the formation of the government after December three, when the results of the recently held assembly polls will be declared, to sell paddy to the government following confusion over release of the difference amount if the MSP of paddy is hiked then.
The state government is currently procuring paddy at Rs 2,640 per quintal from the farmers.
Congress has pledged to hike the procurement price of paddy to Rs 3200 per quintal, if it retains power in the state in the polls, whereas BJP has promised to increase the price to Rs 3100 per quintal.
The paddy procurement has begun on November one which will continue till January 31.
“A section of farmers in the rural pockets of Chhattisgarh have chosen to wait for the formation of the government after December three to sell their paddy to the government since they are confused as to when the difference amount would be released if they dispose of their produce at the current procurement price now”, Nandan Dewta, a farmer of Basna under Mahasamund district in east Chhattisgarh told this newspaper on Monday.
He echoed views of many farmers in other parts of the state.
No wonder, 11.60 lakh metric tonnes of paddy could be procured from around 2.8 lakh farmers by the state government by November 24 as against 21 lakh metric tonnes of paddy procured during the corresponding period in the last year, a senior state government officer said.
The state government has procured a record 107 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in the last season at a total cost of Rs 29,500 crore from around 26 lakh farmers in Chhattisgarh.
“I do not know what is in the mind of the farmers. But, one of the reasons for the paddy procurement not picking up currently is the late transplantation of the crop in the state in the current season. Harvesting of the paddy crop is still in progress in many parts of the state”, registrar of cooperative society Ramesh Sharma told this newspaper.
He however said it hardly makes any difference for the farmers to sell their paddy to the government now or after the formation of the new government since they will be entitled for the revised procurement price, if made by the coming government.
Mr Sharma said the procurement of paddy in the current season is expected to rise by around 25 percent over the last year since the procurement limit has been increased from 15 quintal per acre to 20 quintal per acre.
