Paddy procurement deadline in Bihar extended till Feb 21: Nitish

The deadline for paddy procurement inBihar has been extended by three weeks in a bid to provide thebenefit to as many farmers as possible, Chief Minister NitishKumar said on Thursday.

Kumar said there had been requests from a number offarmers bodies for extending the deadline which wasoriginally set at January 31.

''Consequently, it has been extended to February 21'', hetold a meeting convened to review the procurement of paddyduring the ongoing Kharif season.

The meeting was attended by District Magistrates fromacross the state via video conferencing.

They were told by the chief minister to ensure bettercoordination between the farmers and the Primary AgricultureCredit Societies (PACS) which have been buying agriculturalproduce from cultivators of the state since the APMC Act wasabolished more than a decade ago.

''Get in touch with the farmers in your respective areasof jurisdiction, identify the regions where procurement hasbeen low and take remedial action after finding out thecause'', Kumar said.

He also called for a proper assessment of storagecapacity of rice mills and PACS so that procurement was notdeferred for want of adequate space.

''After procurement, please also ensure that therespective farmers are paid their dues at the earliest'', thechief minister added.

The meeting was attended among others by minister for foodand consumer protection Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Chief SecretaryDeepak Kumar and secretaries of the departments concerned.

Earlier, the Bihar government had increased the limit ofpaddy procurement from ryots (land-owning farmers) to 250quintals from the existing 200 quintals per farmer and 100quintals from the existing 75 quintals per non-ryot in thestate.

This year, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for generalgrade paddy has been fixed at Rs 1,868 per quintal in Biharwhile that for A-grade paddy at Rs 1,888 per quintal.

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