Agartala, Dec 2 (PTI) The Tripura government will procure 40,000 MT of paddy from farmers with a minimum support price of Rs 21.83 per kg for the ongoing season, a minister said on Tuesday.

He said paddy will be procured in all 49 centres across districts and the process will commence on December 11 and continue till January 31.

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“Like previous years, this time, 40,000 MT of paddy will be procured from farmers with a minimum support price of Rs 21.83 per kg," Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said during a press conference here.

He appealed to farmers to sell their paddy to the designated centres and avail of the minimum support price.

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"The procurement will further boost the socio-economic condition of farmers. It will be in addition to the flagship programme of PM Kisan under which each farmer receives Rs 6,000 annually in three phases," he said, adding that the northeastern state has 4.71 lakh farmers with an average three ‘kani' land holding capacity.

Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath said his department held a meeting with officials of Food & Civil Supplies at the Civil Secretariat here to jointly finalise the paddy procurement process.

Terming that the paddy procurement was a historic decision of the BJP-IPFT government, Nath said, "The state has procured a total of 1, 79,219 MT of paddy since 2018 and altogether 91,377 farmers got a total revenue of Rs 342.34 crore. It has changed the socio-economic condition of the farmers of our state," he said.

The agriculture department has already sought help from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research on how to reduce the gap between paddy production and demand.

"Now, the state has a gap of 19 per cent between paddy production and demand, which is the lowest among the northeastern states.

"This gap is 51 per cent each in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, 41 per cent each in Assam and Manipur, 32 per cent in Meghalaya and 49 per cent in Sikkim," he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)