NEW DELHI: The procurement of paddy at MSP by the government agencies in Punjab has doubled, registering a 103% increase during this Kharif Marketing Season till Thursday compared to the corresponding period last year amid the ongoing protests of farmers against the recently enacted farm reform laws.
Official data show that till Thursday, the overall procurement of paddy across states had increased by 28% compared to last year and more than 70% of the total procurement of 6.95 million tonnes of paddy was from Punjab only. During this year the total procurement stood at 4.28 million tonnes as compared to 20.44 million tonnes for the same period in 2019.
The procurement is in full swing in five other states of Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala. “We are also monitoring the payments to farmers and it’s within the prescribed norms,” said an official.
Union food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey reiterated that there should be no doubt in the minds of farmers about the continuation of the MSP regime. He had recently said this is a necessity since the government needs to have a buffer stock of the food grains procured through MSP to meet the demand of distribution of food grain to the poor under the public distribution system.
The food ministry in an official release said the total MSP value till Thursday was to the tune of Rs 13,128 crore and it has benefited more than six lakh farmers and the most of them are from Punjab where farmers organisations have been protesting against the Central farm laws.
Sources said while the movement of food grains has been impacted due to the Rail Roko protest in Punjab, there has no impact on the procurement of the food grains.