New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS): Over 532.86 LMT (lakh metric tons) of paddy has been procured in Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22 in 22 procuring states/UTs up to Sunday, January 9 with about 64 lakh farmers benefitted with Minimum Support Price (MSP) worth over Rs 1 lakh crore.

The highest quantity has been procured from Punjab (1,86,85,53 MT) followed by Chhattisgarh (67,65,986 MT) and Telangana (65,54,739 MT) while the highest number of farmers benefitted in are Chhattisgarh (16,90,459), Telangana (9,67,134) and Punjab (9,24,299).

The paddy procurement is progressing smoothly in KMS 2021-22 at MSP as was done in the previous years in Chandigarh, Gujarat, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, NEF (Tripura), Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, a release from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said.

About 64.07 lakh farmers have been benefited with the MSP value of Rs 1,04,441.45 crore for KMS 2021-22 up to January 9 (as on January 10).

Quantity wise, the top 10 states are Punjab (1,86,85,532 MT), Chhattisgarh (67,65,986 MT), Telangana (65,54,739 MT), Haryana (55,30,596 MT), Uttar Pradesh ( 46,50,290 MT), Madhya Pradesh (31,84,827 MT), Odisha (17,29,048 MT), Andhra Pradesh (15,31,087 MT), Bihar (13,87,525 MT), and Uttarakhand (11,56,066 MT).

For the same season, the states from where more than 1 lakh farmers have benefited with MSP procurement are Chhattisgarh (16,90,459), Telangana (9,67,134), Punjab (9,24,299), Uttar Pradesh (6,56,162), Madhya Pradesh (4,67,771, Odisha (3,35,678), Haryana (3,10,083), Andhra Pradesh (2,14,729), Bihar (1,81,612), Maharashtra (1,88,643), West Bengal (1,86,696) and Tamil Nadu (1,01,218).