In order to meet higher requirement of rice for the public distribution system (PDS), the West Bengal government has decided to allow small and marginal farmers to sell up to 30 quintal of paddy in this boro season.
This is the second consecutive boro season during which the state government will be procuring additional paddy from the farmers.
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“Proposals have been received from different districts for allowing the KB validated small and marginal farmers to sell paddy up to 30 quintal in boro season also. Considering that the small and marginal farmers need to sell their produce at a remunerative price and that the department also needs to procure 30 lakh MT of paddy in remaining 2-3 months to meet its requirement for PDS, the department has now decided in the public interest to allow the validated farmers, i.e, farmers having KB ID to sell 30 quintal of paddy in the coming boro (Rabi) season in this KMS 2023-24 also,” the state’s Food & Supplies Department said in an order.
“The government can buy the paddy from the open market for the PDS need. But in this case, only the traders will benefit. Thus, to support the small and marginal farmers, the state government has decided to procure paddy from them,” a senior government official told businessline.
“This year, we have fixed the paddy procurement target of 63 lakh MT to meet the PDS requirement. So far we have procured 41.73 lakh MT of paddy in this KMS,” the official added.