The Hindu Business Line : Haryana geared up for paddy purchase

THE Haryana Government has said that it has made all arrangements for the smooth procurement of paddy and bajra at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) fixed by the Union Government.

The Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Food and Supplies, Mr H.C. Disodia, said that the purchase of kharif foodgrains would commence on October 1.

As per estimates of the Agriculture Department, paddy had been sown over an area of about 9.5 lakh hectares and the likely production would be around 40 lakh tonnes. Out of this, 31 lakh tonnes would arrive in the mandis, including 11 lakh tonnes of basmati and superior varieties and about 20 lakh tonnes of leviable paddy.

The State Government was committed to making payment to farmers within 48 to 72 hours, for which a cash credit limit of Rs 700 crore had been arranged with the Reserve Bank of India.

Mr Disodia said that the six would procure the foodgrains as per the ratio fixed. The Food and Supplies Department would procure 20 per cent, Hafed 33 per cent, Food Corporation of India 20 per cent and Haryana Agro-Industries Corporation, Haryana Warehousing Corporation and Confed nine per cent each.

The MSP of common variety of paddy had been fixed at Rs 560 per quintal and of Grade `A' variety at Rs 590. Similarly, the MSP of bajra and jowar had been fixed at Rs 515 per quintal and of maize Rs 525.

It had also been decided that the leviable paddy purchased by the procuring agencies would have to be got milled and the entire custom milled rice manufactured from such paddy would have to be delivered to the Central pool by the end of February 2005.

Similarly, the millers purchasing leviable paddy would have to give 75 per cent rice manufactured from such paddy to the Central pool by the same period. At present, there were 871 rice mills functioning in the State.

Mr Disodia said that this year bajra had been sown over an area of five lakh hectares and its production was likely to be about 4.50 lakh tonnes. It was expected that about one lakh tonnes of bajra would arrive in the State mandis. The production of jowar and maize was likely to be 25,000 tonnes and 51,000 metric tonnes respectively.

The billing-cum-payment agents would be appointed in all the mandis as per

requirement to ensure timely payment to the farmers, proper weighment of foodgrains, etc.

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