Tripura's BJP-IPFT government has decided to procure 40,000 metric tonnes of paddy from 49 procurement centres at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 21.83 per kilogram starting December 11. The state targeted to complete paddy procurement by January 31 next year, said Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury in the presence of Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath. "The procurement process will be inaugurated at the paddy procurement centre at Melagarh in Sepahijala district. After the BJP-IPFT government came to power in 2018, the state government started procuring paddy twice yearly at the minimum support price. The erstwhile Left Front government had paddy procurement at MSP among its core demands to the central government for developing the agricultural economy. However, the process did not start during the Left regime," Chowdhury told reporters at the Civil Secretariat in Agartala. কৃষকদের কাছ থেকে সহায়ক মূল্যে ধান ক্রয় রাজ্য সরকারের অগ্রাধিকারের ক্ষেত্র। বর্তমান সরকারের আমলে ধান ক্রয়ের ফলে গোটা রাজ্যের ধান চাষীরা উপকৃত হয়েছেন এবং হচ্ছেন। আজও এ সংক্রান্ত বিষয়ে মহাকরণ থেকে ভিডিও কনফারেন্সের মাধ্যমে রাজ্যের সমস্ত মহকুমা শাসক, ডিডিএ, এসএ pic.twitter.com/6Cq4V7bCam — Ratan Lal Nath (@RatanLalNath1) December 2, 2023 "The state government has now decided to ramp up its paddy procurement and secure 40,000 metric tonnes of paddy from across the state in the kharif season," Chowdhury added. A meeting was held with sub-divisional magistrates of 23 subdivisions and officials of the Food and Agriculture Department under the leadership of Nath through video conference to discuss the matter. The agriculture minister shared figures of paddy procurement since 2018, saying that the state procured 1,79,219 metric tons of paddy from 91,377 farmers from 2018-19 to 2022-23. As a result, the farmers got Rs 342.42 crore, he said. In 2018-19, paddy procurement started at Rs 17.50 per kilogram, said Nath.
