Paddy procurement process started in Barnala district as Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mr. Dharam Pal Gupta, on Thursday, formally started the process from Barnala grain market. As many as 43 tonne paddy had arrived in grain markets till October 3 and 15 tonnes have been procured.DC mr. Gupta said that total 98 purchase centres have been set up across the district and it was estimated that 10 lakh 39 thousand metric tonne paddy will be procured from these centres.DC said although the whole area under paddy crop was not ready for harvesting in the district but several farmers had started reaping the crop. He said the administration had also completed all the process required grain markets of the district. He said the harvesting of the crop in rest of the district would start within a week and agencies would speed up the procurement process with the arrival of the crop in local grain markets.Mr. Gupta added that they had also ensured proper arrangement of gunny bags for the procurement and issued directions to the procurement agencies to take adequate measures to avoid inconvenience to farmers.The Union government has fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy at Rs 1,770 per quintal for the paddy crop.DC also directed the officials of Food and Civil Supply department to follow proper procurement process along with ensuring proper facilities at each grain market and purchase centre. He also appealed the farmers to harvest the crop on appropriate time as the moisture content should not exceed than 17 % which was the permitted limit for the procurement of the paddy. He added that farmers should not set up paddy stubble on fire as besides polluting environment, it also costs dearer to the land as micro friendly insects and nutrients got spoiled due to it.