Katihar tops in paddy procurement in Bihar

KATIHAR: The Katihar administration has claimed that 57.08% of the registered farmers have sold their paddy to the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) at the minimum support price (MSP), which is the maximum among the 38 districts in the state this year so far.
Muzaffarpur (48.99%) was at the second spot, followed by Banka (48.69%), Araria (48.18%) and Gopalganj (47.59%) districts as far as the number of farmers selling their produce so far is concerned, authoritative sources said on Friday.
In Katihar, 4,073 farmers registered themselves with PACS and 2325 of them have sold their paddy at the MSP. Around 15,924 MT (metric tonne) paddy has been obtained from farmers against the target of 37,542 MT in the district.
In Muzaffarpur, 750 out of the 1534 registered farmers have so far sold their produce to PACS at MSP. The figures in Banka were 2481 out of 5095 farmers, followed by 1472 of the 3055 registered in Araria and 484 out of 1017 in Gopalganj.
Muzaffarpur farmers have sold 4,291MT paddy against the target of 10,516MT. Similarly, 14,580MT paddy was procured against the 46,810MT target in Banka and 11,597MT against the target of 37,468MT in Araria 3,727 MT sold against 8,248MT in Gopalganj.
Katihar DM Kanwal Tanuj said a special drive was launched in the district to survey the farmers who wanted their paddy to be procured at MSP. The first phase of this survey was conducted between December 28 and 30, 2020, whereas the second phase was held between January 7 and January 9, 2021.
The DM further said, “Katihar remains ahead other districts in paddy procurement in the state. Paddy was procured from nearly 57.08% farmers in the district while Arwal recorded the lowest with 21.49%.”
In the neighbouring Purnia, 10,220MT (39.84%) of the targeted 39,818MT paddy was procured. In Kishanganj, around 3,706MT paddy has been procured through PACS against the target of 17,757MT.