<span style="color: #222222;">Government today said that the total procurement of Paddy across all States has increased by 48 per cent from 17.7 Lakh tonne last year to over 26 lakh tonne this year. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Agriculture Ministry said, in the current Kharif season, Punjab registered unprecedented increase of procurement from 1.76 lakh tonne last year to around 16 lakh tonne this year as on yesterday, which is more than 900 per cent of the Kharif procurement so far as compared to last year.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Ministry said, in Tamil Nadu, paddy procurement was nine thousand 517 tonne as against 320 tonne. Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh, paddy procurement so far in this marketing season has been four thousand 423 tonne as against 92 tonne last year. Both States have seen significant jump in procurement.</span><br />'' <br />''