Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has hit out at the central government for reducing the rice procurement quota from the state to the central pool from 86.5 lakh metric tonne to 61 lakh metric tonne (MLT).
Speaking to media persons at Raipur on Friday, the chief minister however said that the state government will purchase 20 quintal paddy per acre from the farmers as announced under any circumstances, whether the central government took rice from the state or not. He said that the paddy procurement in the state will start from November 1 as announced.
Baghel asked why the rice procurement quota from the state was reduced suddenly. “What is behind this? Those who are not able to procure rice, how will they procure paddy? Then they (BJP) keep creating ruckus about paddy procurement. There is politics behind this. It is unfortunate that they have started playing already,” the CM said, indicating the upcoming election and paddy procurement being a big issue with farmers.
Earlier on Thursday, the chief minister had written to the Union Minister for Food and Public distribution Piyush Goyal on the matter, seeking restoration of the central pool paddy procurement quota for the state to 86.5 MLT and also the supply of 3.56 lakh new jute bag units for rice packaging as decided earlier.
In his letter on Thursday, Baghel mentioned that, according to the minutes of the meeting of state food secretaries convened by the union ministry of food and public distribution on August 21, 2023, the estimated paddy procurement from the state for the year 2023–24 was revised from 86.5 lakh metric tonnes of produced rice. Also, for the sixth supply plan of jute packaging, issued on September 6, 2023, the supply quantity of new jute bags for rice procurement in the central pool has been reduced from 3.56 lakh to 2.45 lakh bag units.
Baghel mentioned that the Chhattisgarh government has decided to increase the state government's procurement limit for paddy in the Kharif marketing year 2023–24 to 20 quintals per acre from the earlier 15 quintals per acre.
“Therefore, a request was made to maintain the target of procuring 86 lakh metric tonnes of rice in the central pool, considering the increased paddy production in recent years due to adoption of improved seed varieties and better fertiliser management by farmers in the state. The paddy procurement limit was raised to 20 quintals per acre by the state also in response to demands from farmers' groups,” the CM mentioned.
According to the initial advance estimates provided by the state's agriculture department, it is projected that there will be rice production of 136.5 lakh metric tonnes in the state, cultivated across 36 lakh hectares of land. With the exception of a few areas, monsoon conditions in the state favour rice cultivation. In some places where there is a shortage of water for irrigation, canal irrigation management has also been implemented. Given these arrangements, it is imperative for rice production in the state to surpass the initial advance estimates.
“Keeping this situation in mind, the central pool quota for procurement of rice and the supply of required jute bags should be kept unchanged,” the CM said in the letter.