Farmers told to bring dried paddy to mandis

As the state government is set to launch procurement of paddy from Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner Dr Himanshu Aggarwal directed the staff to ensure that there are adequate arrangements and amenities in all 79 mandis across the district.

Presiding over a meeting held at the District Administrative Complex, the DC asked mandi officials to ensure that necessary facilities like drinking water, electricity, lights, cleanliness, toilets, and other arrangements have been made for farmers’ convenience. He also appealed to farmers to bring paddy to the mandis only after properly drying it as per the prescribed standards so that procurement can take place without any hindrance.

He also appealed to farmers not to use harvest combines at night and restrict harvesting between 10 am and 6 pm only, to avoid excess moisture in the crop. The DC directed officials to ensure strict compliance with combine harvesting guidelines. He emphasised that the use of Super SMS with harvest combines must be mandatory, and no combine should be allowed to operate without it. He also instructed agriculture department officials to spread awareness among farmers and combine owners.

Dr Aggarwal, reviewing the arrangements for paddy procurement on Monday, said the district administration would ensure that the entire procurement process is carried out in a smooth and seamless manner and that farmers do not face any difficulty in selling their produce at the mandis.

The DC said during the last procurement season, 10,82,253 metric tonne of paddy was procured. He directed the departments and procurement agencies that there should not be any shortcomings in the mandis and the procurement process must be completely transparent and well-organised.

The meeting was attended by DFSC Harveen Kaur, District Mandi Officer Arvinder Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer Randhir Singh, district managers of procurement agencies, among others.

Phagwara: The government will begin the procurement of paddy from September 16, with the Kapurthala district administration announcing that all arrangements have been finalised to ensure smooth operations.

Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Panchal held a review meeting today with officials from the Food and Civil Supplies Department, the Mandi Board, and procurement agencies to assess preparations. He instructed the officials to visit procurement centres regularly to ensure that farmers, commission agents, and labourers do not face any difficulties.

According to the officials, adequate arrangements have been made for gunny bags (bardana) and other procurement needs. The District Mandi Officer said 42 mandis across Kapurthala district are ready for procurement, with cleaning and maintenance already underway. Basic amenities such as lighting and drinking water have also been arranged.

Panchal appealed to farmers to bring only properly dried paddy to the markets. The permissible moisture content for procurement has been fixed at 17 per cent. To minimise moisture levels in the harvested crop, the harvesting hours have been set between 10 am and 6 pm.

The government has set a target of procuring 8.20 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from the district during this season.