Punjab halfway through in harvesting paddy, 81 lakh tonne procured so far
In October 2021, state had harvested only 39% paddy
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As far as the lifting of paddy is concerned, around 73% of the total arrived paddy has already been transported to the godowns/storage from the mandis.
This year, Punjab has harvested around 50% of its expected paddy production this year while only 39% of harvesting was completed by this time last year. However, untimely rains in the last week of September and first week of October have delayed harvesting this year too.
According to data from Punjab Mandi Board, 91.32 lakh tonnes (LT) of paddy had arrived in mandis by October 27. This year, the government had said that around 18 to 18.5 million tonne (180 to 185 lakh tonne) of paddy production is expected in the state. Last year, 189.08 lakh tonne arrived in the state mandis.
More than 81 lakh metric tonne of paddy has been procured so far in the ongoing Kharif marketing season in Punjab, Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Aggarwal Thursday said A payment of more than Rs 11,531 crore has been made to the farmers, he added.
Aggarwal was in the Khanna grain market, about 45 km from here, to take stock of the procurement operations.
The ACS said the Punjab government was committed to ensure a hassle-free and smooth procurement season and every grain of crops would be procured without causing any inconvenience to the peasantry. He said the farmers were receiving their payments timely besides ensuring foremost priority to prompt purchase.
While paddy procurement in the state begun on October 1, its arrival could only pick up pace after October 17 when daily arrival crossed the 4-lakh tonnes mark and now it is almost double. On Wednesday and Thursday, 8 lakh tonnes and 7.59 lakh tonnes of paddy arrived, respectively.
Sources in the agriculture department said that most probably harvesting will end by the second week of November and farmers will have no time to manage the stubble as wheat sowing has already begun in the state and it will continue till November 20, which is considered a timely sowing period for wheat.
Districts such as Sangrur, Patiala, Ludhiana, Moga, Muktsar Sahib and Mansa are behind in terms of harvesting. In Sangrur, where over 20 LT paddy is expected to reach mandis, it saw around 7 lakh tonne till date. Moga too is far behind the target of 13-14 LT and it has received only around 3 LT.
As far as the lifting of paddy is concerned, around 73% of the total arrived paddy has already been transported to the godowns/storage from the mandis.
State mandis have recorded 6.16 lakh tonnes arrival of Basmati with Amritsar topped the list with 3.22 lakh tonnes, followed by Patiala and Sangrur where 86,354 tonnes and 59,256 tonnes basmati has arrived in the mandis.
Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur recorded 52,504 tonnes and 39,378 tonnes of basmati arrival, respectively. Basmati is purchased by private players, not by the government.
Farmers are earning between Rs 2,700 and Rs 3,750 per quintal of paddy which is considered a good price.
Meanwhile, 1,111 stubble-burning cases were reported in the state on Thursday and with this, the stubble-burning incidents reached 8,147 in the state against 6,742 cases last year in the same period.
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