Uttar Pradesh cabinet nod to ₹143 per quintal hike in paddy MSP

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday cleared fresh paddy purchase policy under the support price scheme for Kharif marketing year 2023-24.

Under it, the new minimum support price (MSP) will be ₹2,183 per quintal for common paddy and ₹2,203 per quintal for Grade-A paddy. The new price is ₹143 higher than the previous year’s.

In the last Kharif marketing year, the MSP for common paddy was ₹2,040 and for the Grade-A ₹2,060. The government has fixed 70 lakh metric tonnes paddy purchase target.

Six purchase agencies namely food and civil supplies department, UP Cooperative Federation (PCF), Pradeshik Cooperative Union Ltd (PCU), Mandi Parishad, UP Consumer Cooperative Union (UPSS) and Food Corporation of India will purchase paddy from farmers through 4,000 procurement centres across the state.

The date of procurement for the districts in Lucknow (Hardoi, Lakhimpur and Sitapur), Bareilly, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Agra, Aligarh and Jhansi divisions will be October 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024.

The date of procurement for Lucknow (Lucknow, Rae Bareli, and Unnao), Chitrakoot, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Devipatan, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Prayagraj divisions will be from November 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024.

The paddy will be purchased at the procurement centres using the electronic PoP (Point of Purchase) machines using biometric proof of the seller farmers.

All the purchasing agencies will pay the farmers within 48 hours (of the purchase) through the Government of India PFMS (Public Finance Management System) portal.  

This article has been republished from The Hindustan Times