STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs, Assam, has denied the report doing the rounds in the state that the farmers who sell their paddy at the paddy procurement centres (PPCs) in the state will lose the benefits of various government schemes, besides cancellation of their ration cards.
The department said that the rumour has come to its notice. “No farmer selling paddy in PPCs will lose his benefits from government schemes, nor will he get his ration card cancelled.”
Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board (ASAMB) chairman Manoj Baruah said, “This grapevine circulated by some rumour mongers has no basis. I appeal to all farmers to sell their paddy at the PPCs at the MSP (minimum support price) set by the government.”
The kharif marketing season (KMS) for 2022–23 has been underway, with six procurement agencies procuring paddy from the state farmers through their 197 PPCs. The six agencies procured 2,70,649 metric tonnes of paddy until February 24 from 30,239 state farmers.
The six procurement agencies are FCI (Food Corporation of India), AFCSCL (Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd), ASAMB (Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board), NACOF (National Federation of Farmers’ Procurement Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd), NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited), and NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited).
The government has set the MSP at Rs 2,040 per quintal for paddy for the 2022–23 season, as compared to Rs 1,940 per quintal in 2021–22. The government has set the target of procuring 10 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from the state farmers this year. The government procured 5.65 metric tonnes of paddy from the state farmers in 2021–22.
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