Odisha set for record paddy procurement

Expecting a bumper harvest of paddy in rabi season, the State Government has targeted to procure 16 lakh quintals of paddy.

BHUBANESWAR: Expecting a bumper harvest of paddy in rabi season, the State Government has targeted to procure 16 lakh quintals of paddy.

The State Government has already procured 42 lakh tonnes of paddy in the kharif marketing season ending March 31. With the Centre extending the procurement date till April 30, the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare (FS&CW) Department anticipates an additional two lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers by the extended time limit.

"We expect a record procurement of about 60 lakh tonnes of paddy in kharif and rabi seasons and if the target is achieved, rice production of the State will be an all-time high," said FS&CW Principal Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra after a high meeting here. Paddy procurement for rabi season will start from May 1 and continue till June 30, he said.

The State's requirement of rice under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes is about 20 lakh tonnes. The balance rice will be supplied to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), he said.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi reviewed the paddy procurement at the State level paddy procurement committee meeting.

After decentralisation of paddy procurement scheme, agencies appointed by the State Government are carrying out procurement to prevent distress sale of paddy in the State.

In a bid to make the procurement more transparent, the FS&CW Department has now put in place an efficient system of procuring paddy and paying farmers through P-PAS (Paddy Procurement Automation System), an e-governance process where payment is made directly to the account of registered farmers.

The State Government has so far disbursed Rs 6,200 crore for purchase of paddy.  

Mohapatra said 7.84 lakh farmers had registered under the system for sale of paddy and the number increased to 9.6 lakh in 2015-17. So far, more than 91,000 farmers have registered for selling their rabi crops. He further said paddy procurement in rabi season will be done in 19 districts. While maximum 26 quintals of paddy will be procured from one acre of irrigated land, it will 24 quintals for an acre in non-irrigated areas.

The State Government had fixed a procurement target of 30 lakh tonnes of rice for 2016-17 kharif marketing season (KMS). The minimum support price for common variety of paddy was fixed at Rs 1,470 per quintal while that for Grade-A variety is Rs 1,510 per quintal.

In KMS 2014-15 and 2015-16, 52.45 lakh tonnes and 50.81 lakh tonnes paddy were procured respectively.

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