Assam: Low paddy procurement in state; stalled at 48% of target

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: A disappointing achievement in paddy procurement was seen in Assam in the current kharif marketing season (KMS), with only 48.17 percent of the target set for the four agencies involved in procurement in the first crop season achieved. The paddy procurement for the first crop season started on December 1, 2023, and concluded on June 30, 2024.

The paddy procurement target set for these four agencies for the KMS 2023–24 was 6,53,700 metric tonnes (MT). However, till the end of the season, the four agencies together procured 314937.55 MT, the breakup being: 271061.02 MT (57.83 percent) against the target of 4,68,700 MT by AFCSCL (Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd), 3503.78 MT (70.07 percent) against the target of 5,000 MT by ASAMB (Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board), only 12100.24 MT (15.92 percent) against the target of 76,000 MT by FCI, and 28272.51 MT (27.18 percent) against the target of 1,04,000 MT by NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd).

The statistics given above make it crystal clear that the two paddy procuring agencies in Assam, AFCSCL and ASAMB, have procured more paddy than their two national counterparts, FCI and NAFED.

According to sources in the Agriculture Department, the state has a total of 70,136 certified farmers who have registered to sell paddy. However, only 33,140 of the registered certified farmers have sold their paddy during this season, which is 47.25% of the certified farmers registered to sell paddy to the procurement agencies.

The top districts in paddy procurement are Dhubri procuring 35281.12 MT from 3488 farmers, Darrang procuring 34846.54 MT from 2013 farmers, Hojai procuring 34434.73 MT from 3199 farmers, Nagaon procuring 33348.14 MT from 2617 farmers, Udalguri 30239.84 MT from 1806 farmers, Morigaon procuring 24223.94 MT from 2120 farmers, Karbi Anglong procuring 21856.17 MT from 1504 farmers, and Sonitpur 14782.64 MT from 810 farmers.

Interestingly, the districts of Dima Hasao and South Salmara-Mankachar recorded zero procurement of paddy, with no farmers coming forward to sell their paddy.

The state has 170 active paddy procurement centres (PCCs). There were 131 PCCs under AFCSCL, 5 PCCs under ASAMB, 13 PCCs under FCI, and 21 PCCs under NAFED. The MSP (minimum support price) for paddy fixed for the KMS 2023–24 is Rs 2,183 per quintal, compared to Rs 2,040 per quintal in the KMS 2022–23.

An official of ASAMB stated that a major reason for the low procurement of paddy is that the selling price of paddy in the open market was higher than the MSP offered by the government. So, farmers opted to sell their paddy in the open market instead of offering it for sale to the procurement agencies.

Also Read: Assam: Community Comes Together for Paddy Plantation (sentinelassam.com)

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