Pramod Boro eyes to enhance paddy production & procurement in BTR

HT Correspondent
KOKRAJHAR, Aug 26: Bodoland Territorial Region chief executive member Pramod Boro convened a meeting to enhance paddy production and procurement capacity at Tamulpur of Bodoland Territorial Region on Friday. The meeting was held to assess and strategise maximisation of paddy production and procurement in the BTR districts. Establishment of adequate number of paddy procurement centres, rice mills and construction of godowns were the important agendas taken up for discussion.
The objective of the meeting was to enhance the incomes of farmers in BTR by system strengthening and removal of bottlenecks. The meeting sought to bring about a reversal in the dismal annual paddy procurement rates in BTR in the previous years.
It may be mentioned that the annual average paddy production in BTR was approximately 11,00,000 MT with a marketable surplus of approximately 2,00,000 MT. Under the Government’s scheme of Minimum Support Price, farmers could sell their marketable surplus at Rs 2040 per quintal (2022-23) compared to farmers who used to get Rs 1200 to Rs 1500 per quintal in local markets. This would come as a huge relief for the paddy farmers as they were forced to sell at a loss earlier due to absence of paddy procurement centres in BTR.
“The wellbeing and economic development of the farmers cannot be compromised any longer,” said Boro.
He also said that the farmers’ income needed to be augmented to make agricultural practice sustainable in BTR. He called for innovation through mechanisation and modernisation to attract younger generations to take up cultivation as a profession. All the officials and leaders should work together to remove administrative bottlenecks and smoothen processes in the farming and agriculture sector to enhance “ease of doing business”. The CEM emphasised that the godown-space and the milling capacity in the BTC must be enhanced so that the entire marketable surplus can be procured under MSP. He also underscored that the local food grain requirements under PDS and various government schemes should be supplied through the procurement and custom-milling of rice scheme of the Government.
Prafulla Kumar Saikia, special executive officer (PP&MD), to the AFCSCL put up a presentation on the different programmes and strategies of the Government of Assam for increasing paddy procurement and milling in Assam. The AFCSCL officials requested the CEM for setting up of godown space (at least one godown of 25000 sq. ft. per district) so that the entire rice distribution system could be managed smoothly.
The meeting was also attended by executive members of BTR- Rakesh Brahma, Dharma Narayan Das, Reo Reoa Narzihary, and Ranendra Narzary, MLA of Tamulpur Jalen Daimary, Simanta Kr. Das, deputy commissioner of Tamulpur District, Diganta Das, managing director, AFCSCL, and Jayanta Mazinder Baruah, special executive officer (P&S), AFCSCL.