Paddy procurement: State to give incentive of Rs 20/quintal over & above the MSP

Kolkata: The state Food and Supplies department will provide an incentive of Rs 20 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers who would sell their paddy at the Centralised Procurement Centres (CPCs) including Direct Purchase Centre (DPC) and CPCs set up by Custom Milled Rice (CMR) agencies.

The incentive will be provided over and above the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy that has been fixed at Rs 1,940 per quintal.

The procurement of paddy will kick off from November 1.

A farmer can sell a maximum quantity of 45 quintal paddy for the entire Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22.

"We have set a target for procuring 49 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of paddy this year and for this we are setting up 150 additional CPCs and DPCs. The total number of CPC and DPC which was 400 this year will go up to 550 in the coming season," a senior official of the department said.

The department had made a record procurement of 46 lakh MT paddy in the 2019-20 season and have also created a record by purchasing stuff from over 15 lakh farmers.

According to an official 25 lakh MT of kharif paddy and 8 lakh MT of Rabi paddy will be procured through the state and central pools while the remaining 16 lakh MT will be procured by the different CMR agencies like WBECSC, Benfed, Confed to name a few.

This is for the first time when the CMR agencies will be allowed to open CPCs in suitable locations in concurrence with the department.

The Co Operative Societies/Self Help Groups/Farmers Producers Organisation may also open purchase centres on behalf of CMR agencies.

The farmers who have already registered do not need to do so again. New farmers may register at the CPCs, Office of the Inspectors of the department as well as Bangla Sahayata Kendras (BSKs) located in different blocks across

the state.

"For the interest of procurement from small and marginal farmers, one farmer, one registration and one bank account policy will be adopted. The payment will be made directly through NEFT to the bank account of the individual farmers within three days from the purchase," the official added.