Maharashtra’s State Co-operative Marketing Federation along with Adivasi Vikas Mahamandal will start procurement of maize, paddy, jowar, bajra and other coarse cereals on behalf of Food Corp of India. Procurement of paddy (in Maharashtra) will start from now, while that of maize, jowar and bajra will commence from Nov 1. The government will procure fair average quality common paddy variety at 1,750 rupees per 100 kg and grade “A” variety at 1,770 rupees per 100 kg. Procurement of maize will be at 1,700 rupees, bajra at 1,950 rupees and jowar hybrid variety at 2,430 rupees and Maldandi variety at 2,450 rupees per 100 kg. The registration and buying of the farmers’ produce will be done online through NCDEX e-Markets Ltd, formerly known as NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd. Output of kharif rice in the country in 2018-19 (Jul-Jun) is estimated at 99.24 mln tn, up 1.8% on year, kharif maize output is forecast at 21.47 mln tn, up 6.1%, while that of kharif jowar is estimated at 1.88 mln tn, down from 2.10 mln tn in 2017-18.