Thaindian News

Ranchi, Aug 4 (IANS) In a move to help the farmers facing erratic rainfall, the Jharkhand government has decided to set up 500 centres to procure paddy, a minister said Thursday.

“About 500 centres will be established in the districts to procure paddy from the farmers. The farmer can sell their paddy at these centres and their payment will be made within three days in their bank accounts,” Food Processing Minister Mathura Prasad Mahto told reporters here.

Minister for Cooperative Affairs Haji Hussain Ansari, who jointly addressed a press conference with Mahto, said the food processing and cooperative departments would jointly decided to set up procuring centres.

The farmers will get minimum support price fixed by the central government The support price of A grade paddy has been fixed at Rs.1,110 per quintal and Rs.1,080 per quintal for common paddy.

The state government has made provision of Rs.10 crore for paddy procurement. No upper cap of paddy procurement has been fixed.

Jharkhand witnessed drought for three successive years. This year the state has witnessed erratic rainfall in some of districts. Some of the districts have witnessed good rainfall and the government is expecting food grain production to touch 30 million tonnes this year.