Guwahati (Assam) [India], September 6 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday announced that the state had achieved a historic milestone by crossing the 8 lakh metric tonne (MT) mark in paddy procurement under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) scheme during the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2024-25.

The chief minister called it a 'historic achievement' in the state's journey toward agricultural prosperity.

In a post on X, the Chief Minister said, 'I am proud to share that during KMS 2024-25, Assam has achieved a record milestone in paddy procurement under MSP. For the first time ever, Assam has crossed the 8 Lakh MT mark in paddy procurement -- a historic achievement in our journey of prosperity.'

https://x.com/himantabiswa/status/1964150649974902973

CM Sarma added that the state procured 6,97,802.74 MT of paddy in the first crop cycle and 1,04,757.98 MT in the second crop cycle till September 5, 2025. This brought the total procurement to 8,02,560.72 MT.

On Tuesday, Union Minister for Textiles Giriraj Singh assured that all cotton arriving in the market that falls under MSP guidelines will be procured without disruption this season, as he reiterated the government's commitment to the welfare of cotton farmers.

He reaffirmed the government's vision to protect the interests of cotton farmers by ensuring a remunerative price for their produce.

The Union Minister chaired a high-level review meeting in New Delhi in the presence of top officials from the ministry, Lalit Kumar Gupta, CMD, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), to assess the preparedness for Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for cotton during the upcoming Kharif Marketing Season 2025-26.

Cotton procurement will commence on October 1, 2025.

In line with the government's Digital India vision, all processes--right from procurement of cotton by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) under MSP operations to sale of stocks--are now completely faceless and paperless, strengthening farmers' and other stakeholders' confidence and trust in MSP operations, said the Union Minister.

For the first time, uniform norms have been laid down for the establishment of procurement centres, factoring in key parameters such as cotton cultivation area, availability of functional APMC yards and at least the availability of one stock processing factory at the cotton procurement centre.

As a result, a record 550 procurement centres have been set up across major cotton-producing states.

Procurement of cotton under MSP will commence from October 1 in the North States, October 15 in the Central States and from October 21, 2025, in the South States. (ANI)