Jalandhar procures 39,000 MT paddy in first five days

Procurement has also gathered pace alongside the rising arrivals. As many as 16,904 MT of paddy was procured on Monday, compared with 14,092 MT on Sunday and 5,326 MT on Saturday. The entire quantity so far has been purchased by government agencies with no private procurement reported.

The department has made payments worth Rs 95 crore to farmers, including Rs 49 crore on Monday. Officials said payments were being made within the stipulated 48 hour norm.

Harsharanjit Singh Brar, District Food and Civil Supplies Controller (DFSC), Jalandhar, said lifting will gather pace as the procurement season progresses. Since paddy is currently arriving and being dispersed across mandis, the quantity needs to be substantial before wagons can transport the crop to rice mills.

The procurement season began on October 1 with the district administration expecting around 10.84 lakh MT of paddy to arrive across 79 purchase centres in Jalandhar this season. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,461 per quintal this season.

Farmers have been urged to bring only properly dried paddy to the mandis with the permissible moisture content capped at 17 per cent. Farmers have been advised to avoid harvesting at night to ensure that the crop brought to the purchase centres meets the prescribed quality requirements.