The Jammu and Kashmir government plans to set up a Food and Civil Supplies Corporation which would start procurement of paddy in the coming years.
In an official statement here, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, said the idea was to provide relief to farmers by procuring their produce at reliable rates.
He said the government was also opening paddy procurement centres in the state to keep a check on the role of middlemen and providing maximum benefit to the farmers.
The government is focusing on streamlining the paddy procurement process so that the farmers do not face any difficulty in selling their produce, the minister said after inaugurating a paddy procurement mandi at Channu Chak here yesterday.
He said the minimum support price of paddy common has been fixed at Rs 1,550 per quintal and paddy grade-A at Rs 1,590 per quintal for the current Kharif marketing season 2017-18.
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