Chhattisgarh farmers earn record money in paddy sale

Farmers in India's leading rice producing state of Chhattisgarh earned a record Rs.6535 crore by selling their paddy to state government through co-operative societies this year, a statement said Saturday.

"It's a record payment to farmers during the current kharif marketing season, the government paid Rs.6535 crore to farmers in all the 27 districts, where about 59.68 lakh metric tonnes of paddy were procured from them. The paddy were procured on support prices began in the state from Nov 5, 2011 at 1888 centres and the procurement was closed February 15, 2012," an official statement informed.

Officials said that the procurement of 59.68 lakh metric tonnes of paddy is the highest ever procurement figure since the state came into existence in Nov 2000.

The state government paid the amount to farmers at the rate of Rs.1080 per quintal for common grade category, and Rs.1110 per quintal for Grade-A category paddy.
The data compiled by the Marketing Federation Chhattisgarh informed that maximum collection of rice was made from Janjgir-Champa district where 7.79 lakh metric tonnes of rice were procured.