Lucknow, Oct 2 : The Uttar Pradesh government has started the purchase of paddy for the Kharif procurement season of 2023-24. The food and civil supplies department aims to procure 70 lakh tonnes of paddy this marketing season. The paddy will be purchased at varied MSP depending on the quality of crop. While common and grade A varieties will be procured at the rate of Rs 2,183 and Rs 2,203 per quintal, respectively. This will be higher than last year when common and grade A were purchased at Rs 2,040 and Rs 2,060 per quintal, respectively. Procurement began in Bareilly, Moradabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi and Hardoi, Sitapur and Lakhimpur of Lucknow division from Sunday. The process will begin from November 1 in Lucknow region including Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Chitrakoot, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Devipatan, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Prayagraj. A state government spokesperson said that adequate arrangements have been made at the paddy purchase centres to ensure that farmers face no difficulties. 'Special instructions have been given to department officials and nodal agencies for this purpose,' he said. Notably, these centres, established near the farmers' fields, have been geo-tagged with the help of Remote Sensing Application Centre (RSAC). /IANS