Chandigarh, Sept. 16 -- As freshly harvested paddy crops arrive in Punjab mandis, the state food and civil supplies department is set to open 1,872 mandis for procurement of the kharif crop from Tuesday.

In the past, procurement usually began from October 1 but this year, it has been advanced by two weeks to cater to the early sown varieties. "Owing to delayed rainfall in the state which also caused floods and submerged nearly 5 lakh acres of paddy crop in August, there is high moisture content in the crop. The permissible limit for moisture content is 17%. So the procurement will be delayed," said an official in the mandi board.

"We are expecting the crop arrival to start in full swing by the first week of October," added the board off...