In the current kharif marketing season 2023-24, the procurement of paddy in Uttar Pradesh has breached the level of 5 million tonnes (MT) so far.
The state government is targetting to procure a total of 7 MT in direct procurement this season. More than 754,000 paddy farmers have been paid more than Rs 10,427 crore against procurement.
This way, the state has already achieved almost 75 percent of the target for the season.
The prevailing paddy Minimum Support Price (MSP) is Rs 2,183 and Rs 2,203 per quintal (100 kg) for common variety and grade-A paddy respectively.
The procurement is being done by state agencies apart from some centres operated by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the institutional MSP mechanism.
Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government is also promoting the cultivation, processing and marketing of millets to create a value chain for traditional crops, which over the decades fell out of favour vis-à-vis wheat and paddy.
In fact, UP is targetting to increase the millet acreage to 2.5 million hectares (MH) and engage women entrepreneurs and self help groups (SHG) in its promotion.
At present, UP millet crop area and production is estimated at 1.1 MH and 5 MT respectively, which roughly corresponds to 20 percent of India’s annual output. Major millets in the state include jowar, bajra, kodo, ragi, kottu and sanwa.
Millets provides a basket of low risk crops, which are resilient to climate change and drought situations. As such, the Yogi government is promoting these nutritious cereals in rain-fed areas. The state is also taking steps to introduce millets in the midday meal scheme and planning to set up special retail network.