Bhawanipatna: Paddy procurement in Kalahandi district has been moving at a sluggish pace since the beginning of the current kharif marketing season, causing concern among farmers.
The situation worsened between January 5 and 7 following an agitation by rice millers, which brought paddy lifting at mandis to a halt.
After the agitation subsided, lifting resumed January 8.
As of Thursday, 53,227 farmers had sold 2,422,661 quintals of paddy in the district.
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Initially, Kalahandi was assigned a procurement target of 36,95,800 quintals.
The state government approved an additional target of 17,05,000 quintals Friday, raising the district’s total procurement target to 54,00,800 quintals.
Despite the increased target, paddy lifting remains slow across the district’s 230 mandis due to the limited number of trucks deployed by millers.
Large quantities of paddy remain stacked at procurement centres, forcing farmers to cover their produce with tarpaulins and guard it amid harsh winter conditions.
