January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23).    
The FMTC had set the target to purchase 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers but could manage to buy only this quantity of paddy from its 10 offices across the country.    
The company's information officer Sharmila Neupane Subedi shared that paddy procurement process has already begun in Birtamod, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Mahendranagar while the process is due in Lahan, Janakpur and Bhairahawa.    
A total of Rs 990 million has been allocated to buy paddy from farmers, said information officer Subedi. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on November 2 this year had determined the support price of thick paddy and medium-sized paddy for this year.    
The support price of thick paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,967 per quintal while that of medium-sized paddy is Rs 3,128.    
According to the details provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on production of paddy for the ongoing fiscal year on last Thursday, paddy was planted across 1,447,789 hectare of land and the yield was 5,486,472 metric tonnes this year. -- RSS