New Delhi. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is striving to double the income of the farmers and get fair price for the crops. For this, schemes are being run on a large scale. In this sequence, like every year, the Yogi government has started procurement of paddy from Saturday, October 1, under the Kharif procurement season 2022-23. Proper arrangements have been made at the paddy procurement centers so that the farmers do not face any problem. For this, special instructions have been given to the officers of the department and the nodal agency.
Geo tagged to centers
The Yogi government is buying paddy this season at the increased MSP. The new MSP rate of paddy is Rs 2,040 per quintal for normal paddy and Rs 2,060 per quintal for grade A paddy. Earlier this rate was Rs 1940 per quintal for normal paddy and Rs 1960 per quintal for Grade A paddy. This season the nodal agency, Food and Civil Supplies Department will procure around 70 lakh metric tonnes of paddy to create a new record in paddy procurement. Barring two districts Mahoba and Lalitpur, about four thousand centers have been set up in 73 districts where paddy will be collected. In Mahoba and Lalitpur, centers have not been set up due to non-production of paddy. Special care has been taken to ensure that farmers do not face any problem in bringing paddy to the centre. In such a situation, these centers have been established near the farmers’ fields. At the same time, the Food and Supplies Department is making transparent arrangements for immediate payment to the farmers after the purchase of the crop. For this, the centers have been geo-tagged with the help of Remote Sensing Application Center (RSAC).
Paddy will also be procured from PFMS portal
To participate in the purchase of paddy, the farmers of the state are required to register themselves on the Food and Civil Supplies Department’s portal www.fcs.up.gov.in. Paddy will be procured through electronic point of purchase (e-pop) machines through biometric authentication of farmers. Not only this, on the lines of wheat procurement, paddy will also be procured through PFMS portal. The payment for the purchase of paddy made through the portal will reach the farmer’s account within 72 hours. The procurement of paddy has been started from Saturday 1 October in Bareilly, Moradabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi divisions and Hardoi, Sitapur and Lakhimpur of Lucknow division while Lucknow (Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Unnao), Chitrakoot, Kanpur, Paddy procurement will be started from November 1 in Ayodhya, Devipatan, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Prayagraj divisions.
Centers set up by these departments
The centers have been set up by the Food and Civil Supplies Department, UP Co-Operative Union (PCF), UP Sahakari Union Limited (PCU), UP Rajya Krishi Utpadan Mandi Parishad, UP Consumer Cooperative Union (UPS) and Marketing Department of Food Corporation.