New Delhi, Mar 7 (IANS): The paddy procurement is progressing smoothly in Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22 at minimum support price (MSP) as was done in previous years with 725.93 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) procured up to March 6 from the procuring states/UTs, the government said on Monday.

Paddy procurement has been carried out from Chandigarh, Gujarat, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Pudducherry, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.

Till now, about 102.29 lakh farmers have benefitted with MSP value of Rs 1,42,282.68 crore, a release from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said.

The highest quantity of paddy procurement (MTs) was from Punjab (1,86,85,532), followed by Chhattisgarh (92,01,000), Telangana (70,22,000), Uttar Pradesh (65,44,306), Haryana (55,30,596), Odisha (54,54,793), and Madhya Pradesh (45,82,610).

The largest number of farmers benefitted were from Chhattisgarh (21,05,972), Odisha (12,08,900), Telangana (10,62,428), Uttar Pradesh (9,45,878), Punjab (9,24,299), Madhya Pradesh (6,61,756), West Bengal (6,43,401), Bihar (6,42,007), Maharashtra (4,74,855), Andhra Pradesh (5,65,566), and Haryana (3,10,083), the release said.