Jharkhand govt to take loans of Rs 1000 Cr for farmers assistance 

Ranchi, December 24: Jharkhand government is going to take a big step regarding farmers.

Hemant government will take a loan of Rs 1000 thousand crore from the bank to buy paddy. Preparations are being made by the Food Supply Department in this regard. The process is in the final stages.

Jharkhand State Food Corporation (JSFC) managing director Yatindra Prasad has invited banks to give loans by issuing EoI. The last date for opening the tender has been fixed as 26th December.

After getting the consent of the Finance Department, the government will start purchasing paddy by taking loan from the concerned bank. In fact, this year the government has increased the paddy procurement target to 60 lakh quintals.

This year, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for ordinary paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,183 per quintal by the Central Government. Whereas for Grade-A paddy it is Rs 2,203 per quintal. Apart from this, the state government will give bonus at the rate of Rs 117 per quintal to the farmers. In this way, this year the farmers of the state will get a total price of Rs 2300 per quintal on normal paddy and Rs 2320 per quintal on Grade-A paddy.

Rice mills will be given incentive at the rate of Rs 60 per quintal. In such a situation, a total of Rs 70.20 crore will be spent in this scheme.

The state government has set a target of purchasing 60 lakh quintals of paddy from farmers this year, out of which 23 lakh quintals of paddy will be purchased for the Jharkhand State Food Security Scheme and 37 lakh quintals of paddy will be purchased for the centrally sponsored National Food Security Act.

This year also the government has decided to pay 50 percent of the minimum support price to the farmers at the time of paddy procurement. The remaining amount and bonus will be paid after the paddy reaches the warehouse. However, the date of paddy purchase has not been decided yet. However, according to the information available, the government can purchase paddy on March 31, 2024.

The Food Supply Department has fixed 200 quintals of paddy per farmer so that more and more farmers can get the minimum support price. As an exception, if a farmer sells more than 200 quintals of paddy, the decision regarding granting permission will be taken by the Deputy Commissioner after local investigation.