Paddy procurement affected, farmers upset due to lack of offtake

Raipur. The grand campaign of paddy procurement is going on continuously in Chhattisgarh from November 1, 2023. So far, 74.28 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been purchased from farmers in the state. At the same time, paddy is not being lifted in the paddy procurement centres, due to which the problems in the centers have increased. A similar case has come from Korba and Bastar districts.

There is bumper arrival of paddy in the paddy procurement centers in Pondi Uproda block of Korba. But a situation of paddy jam has arisen in the centres. The buffer stock in 12 centers in Pondi Uparoda block has been exceeded and there is no space to store the paddy. These centers have the capacity to store only five to ten thousand quintals of paddy. In such a situation, there is a problem in purchasing paddy in these centres.

Now procurement is getting affected due to lack of paddy lifting in Bastar district. 95 percent centers of Bastar district have reached such a situation. Where paddy has now crossed the buffer limit. If paddy is not lifted in the next one to two days, procurement will be affected. Procurement center operators have also given an ultimatum to the administration for this. There are 79 paddy procurement centers in Bastar district, out of which the stock of paddy in 77 paddy procurement centers is beyond the buffer limit. 86,471 tonnes of paddy is lying in the open in 79 centres.