By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 13, 2021: MORE than 91 lakh paddy farmers have benefitted from the ongoing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21 procurement operations with 636.27 lakh tonne of the crop purchased at the Minimum Support Price of over Rs. 1.20 lakh crore.

The Ministry of Food and Public Distribution said on Friday that the government has continued to procure kharif crops at MSP from farmers as per the existing schemes.

Paddy procurement has continued in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tripura.

As on February 11, over 636.27 lakh tonne of paddy has been purchased, which is an increase of 16.11 per cent against the last year corresponding purchase of 547.98 lakh tonne. Punjab alone has contributed 202.82 lakh tonne, which is 31.87 per cent of the total procurement.

"About 91.26 lakh farmers have already been benefitted from the ongoing KMS procurement operations with MSP value of Rs. 1,20,129.11 crore," it said.

The government through its nodal agencies also procured 3.09 lakh tonne of moong, urad, tur, groundnut pods and soyabean having MSP value of Rs. 1,664.63 crore from 1.67 lakh farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Similarly, 5,089 tonne of copra has been purchased from almost 4,000 farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with an an MSP value of Rs. 52.40 crore.