Paddy procurement starts at 29 markets in Amritsar district

Amritsar, October 5

The grain markets in the district have witnessed arrival of 1.95 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of basmati and 10,710 MT of parmal varieties of paddy during the ongoing season.

While the harvesting of basmati crop started a fortnight ago, the arrival of parmal is yet to pick up because the crop has not yet ripened.

The government procurement of parmal varieties started on October 1. The basmati varieties are not covered under the MSP and are purchased by private buyers only. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Amit Talwar said the mandi board had designated 47 procurement centres in the district. However, due to slow pace of harvesting, paddy had arrived only in 29 grain markets so far, he said.

He said the remaining markets would become operational as soon as produce arrived there. The DC appealed to farmers to bring fully ripened crop to grain markets so that it could be purchased by government agencies on the same day.

Talwar said the four state government procurement agencies — Markfed, Punsup, Punjab Warehouse and Pungrain — had purchased 4,791 MT of the parmal crop. Of the total government procurement, 4,407 MT of paddy was procured on Thursday. The private buyers have also purchased 2,524 MT of the parmal crop so far.

The DC said said farmers would not face any difficulty at mandis. He said farmers were being paid for their procured crop through digital mode.