Soon, meet with co-op societies for direct procurement of paddy from farmers

Kolkata: The state Co-operation department has organised a preparatory meeting with members of co-operative societies from across the state to ensure proper procurement of paddy directly from farmers at the right price.

This is the first time when such a meeting has been organised in which members of co-operative societies from all the 23 districts will be given an outline following which they can easily procure paddy from more farmers.

The preparatory meeting with the representatives of the co-operative societies will be held at Rabindra Sadan on October 30.

Arup Roy, the state Co-operation minister, said: "The step to organise such a meeting has been taken considering that it will help in procurement of paddy directly from farmers in a better manner. Direct procurement of paddy is immensely beneficial for farmers as they do not have to depend on middlemen to sell their produce and it ensures that they get the right price for selling the crop."

It may be mentioned that soon after coming to power, the Mamata Banerjee -government had taken several steps to ensure that farmers get right price for their produce. It helped in negating the role of middlemen for whom farmers didn't use to get right price for their crops.

The initiative of the Co-operation department will further reduce dependence of farmers on middlemen as the department will be procuring 90 percent of the total paddy cultivation. The direct paddy procurement from farmers in the Khariff Monsoon Season is going to start from November 1.

Representatives of 700 co-operative societies from different parts of the state will be attending the meeting and members of some self help groups will also be present in the meeting.

Roy along with senior officials of the state Co-operation department will be present in the meeting and they will be discussing the issues related to procurement of paddy with representatives of the co-operative societies. According to senior officials of the state co-operation department, the meeting will be immensely helpful as most members of the co-operative societies are themselves farmers.

The state Co-operation department had earlier introduced special vehicles under its project "Sufala" to help common people get fresh vegetables at right price at their doorstep after procuring it directly from farmers.

The vehicles were given to 15 co-operative societies. The department has set a target of introducing total 200 such vehicles by the end of this fiscal.