Assam: 96 percent of target met due to better response from farmers paddy procurement

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Procurement of paddy for the first crop of the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2024-25 in Assam has been very successful to date, as compared to the procurement in the same season during the previous years. This is mainly due to good response from the farmers to the procurement process. The total number of active Paddy Procurement Centres (PPCs) is 169 across the state.

The target for procurement of paddy for the first crop of the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2024-25 in Assam was set at 5,82,500 metric tonnes (MT). Against this target, the procurement until now has reached more than 5,59,980 MT, which is 96.13% of the target.

Like in previous years, the procurement this time is being done by four agencies—two central and two state agencies. The procurement agencies are AFCSCL (Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd), ASAMB (Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board), Food Corporation of India (FCI), and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd).

The procurement target is 4,19,000 MT for AFCSCL, of which the agency has procured more than its intended target by procuring 4,44,438 MT, which is 106% of the target.

The other highly successful agency is NAFED, which was set a target of 75,000 MT, but it has already procured 95,588 MT. This is 127% more than its targeted procurement.

However, ASAMB could not achieve its procurement target of 4,500 MT. Till now, the agency has procured a little above 2871 MT, which is 63.8% of the procurement target.  

The laggard, as usual, is FCI. The agency was set a target of 84,000 MT, but as of date, FCI has only procured 20.5% of its target. It has only procured 17,223 MT. The paddy procurement for the first crop season started on December 1, 2024, and will conclude on June 30, 2025.

For this year’s first crop of KMS, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy was fixed at Rs 2,300 per quintal for common paddy. The MSP for paddy has been increasing consistently over the past five years. In 2020-21, the MSP for common paddy was Rs 1,868, which increased to Rs 1,940 in 2021-22, Rs 2,040 in 2022-23, Rs 2,183 in 2023-24, and Rs 2,300 per quintal for this year.

In the first crop of KMS 2024-25 this year, a total of 72,115 farmers across the state applied for registration in the procurement process. After verification of their documents, a total of 68,418 farmers were finally registered. The 68,418 registered farmers put the total quantity of paddy available for procurement at 8,49,826 MT.

Till now, a total of 46,158 registered farmers have sold 5,59,980 MT of paddy through the PPCs to the four agencies involved in the procurement process.

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