Modi Govt Procures Record Paddy At MSP, Punjab Alone Accounts For 30 Per Cent Of Total Share

Paddy procurement in the ongoing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21 is continuing as the Modi government is on course of a record procurement. Till Monday (22 February) the government’s total procurement of paddy has touched 65.8 million tonnes against the purchase of 56.5 million tonnes during this period in 2020.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said in a statement that this season’s paddy procurement has seen an increase of 16.56 per cent against last year’s period.

It is noteworthy that Punjab, which is at the forefront of farmer protests against the Modi government, alone accounts for 30.7 per cent of the total quantity procured.

While Punjab which constitutes just 2.29 per cent of India's total population accounted for 30 per cent of total paddy procurement, Uttar Pradesh which forms 16.5 per cent of country’s population constituted just 10 per cent of paddy procurement in KMS.

The ministry stated that Paddy procurement for Kharif 2020-21 is continuing smoothly in the procuring States and Union Territories of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tripura.

About 95.23 lakh farmers have been benefited from the ongoing KMS procurement operations with Minimum Support Price (MSP) value of Rs. 1,24,345 Crore.

Also the procurement operations of seed cotton (Kapas) by the government under MSP have reached a quantity of 91.6 lakh cotton bales valuing Rs 26,705 crore benefitting 18.9 lakh farmers.