CM Bhupesh Baghel wrote a letter to Union Minister Piyush Goyal
Raipur: CM Bhupesh Baghel has written a letter to Union Minister Piyush Goyal. Chief Minister Baghel has written in the letter that as per the proceedings of the meeting of Food Secretaries dated 21 August 2023 issued by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, the resulting rice to be made as per the paddy procurement estimate of 130 lakh tonnes in the state, dated 28 August 2023, The quantity of 86.5 lakh metric tons has been reduced to 61 lakh metric tons. Apart from this, through the Sixth Supply Plan of Jute Packaging dated 06 September 2023, the supply quantity of new jute gunny bags required for procurement of rice in the Central Pool has been reduced to 2.45 lakh bales instead of 3.56 lakh bales.
Referring to the discussion held in the meeting of Food Secretaries on August 21, 2023, Chief Minister Baghel said that in this meeting, on behalf of the Chhattisgarh government, the limit of paddy purchase by the state government in the Kharif marketing year 2023-24 in the state will be 20 quintals per acre. Referring to this, which was fixed at 15 quintals per acre from the Kharif marketing year 2014-15 for the last several years, a request was made to keep the target of procurement of 86 lakh metric tonnes of rice in the central pool as it was. In the past years, along with the increase in the area of paddy, there has been an increase in productivity in view of the use of improved quality seeds and better fertilizer management by the farmers of the state, especially in the plain areas of Central Chhattisgarh, due to which the demand made by the farmer groups has been fulfilled. On the basis of this, the limit of paddy purchase in the state has been increased from 15 quintals per acre to a maximum of 20 quintals per acre by the state government.
Based on the first advance estimate by the State Agriculture Department, paddy production has been estimated at 136.5 lakh tonnes in the area of paddy sown in the state of 36 lakh hectares. Barring a few places in the state, the monsoon conditions are in line with the paddy crop. Due to shortage of water at some places in the irrigated area of the state, arrangements for irrigation have also been made through canals. In view of the above arrangement, it is inevitable that the production of paddy in the state will be more than the advance estimate.
