With the weather becoming conducive, the pace of paddy harvest has increased. District mandi officials have said that 1,90,018 tonnes of paddy has been procured by different government agencies. Private buyers have purchased 2,28,923 tonnes of produce. In the district, a total of 30 markets have been set up for the procurement of paddy. He said the process was going on smoothly as with a dry spell for the last couple of days, the moisture content in crops had gone down. The arrival of crop has picked up pace, it will slow down a little in the next few days as there is still time for the harvest of the late sown basmati varieties. As per an estimate, around 80,000 hectare is under basmati varieties.