BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to procure pulses and oil seeds from 10 districts under price support system, beginning December 15, to protect farmers from exploitation of private traders.
While the Odisha State Cooperative Marketing Federation (Markfed) will procure pulses and oil seeds from Ganjam, Boudh, Angul, Nuapada, Sonepur and Malkangiri districts, the Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation (TDCC) has been assigned four districts of Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Mayubhanj and Balangir for the job.
It has been targeted to procure 1,161 tonnes of moong, 4,410 tonnes of biri, 9,832 tonnes of arhar and 1,258 tonnes of groundnut from the 10 districts during the kharif-2018 season.
The two government agencies will be assisted by the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) and Regulated Market Committees (RMCs) in the procurement of the crops from farmers.
As per the action plan issued by Cooperation Department, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) will install required software in the identified PACS and RMCs by November 28 for undertaking procurement operation under price support system.
The PACS have been instructed to complete registration of farmers by December 5 while the Directorate of Agriculture and Food production and RMCs concerned have been asked to give adequate publicity to sensitise the farmers.
Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies (DRCS) of districts concerned have been asked to chalk out action plan for smooth procurement of pulses and oil seeds through designated procurement centres. They have been asked to send their action taken reports to the Directorate within two weeks.
The Centre has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) for moong at Rs 6,975 per quintal for 2018-19 as against Rs 5,575 per quintal in 2017-18, biri at Rs 5,600 per quintal as against Rs 5,400 last year, arhar at Rs 5,675 as against Rs 5,450 last year, and groundnut-in-shell at Rs 4,890 as against Rs 4,450.
The basic objectives of PSS are to provide remunerative prices to the growers with a view to encourage higher investment and production and to safeguard the interest of the consumers by making available supplies at reasonable price with low cost of intermediation.
Under PSS, payments to the farmers are made strictly through real time gross settlement (RTGS)/national electronic fund transfer (NEFT) and account payee cheque by the procuring agencies within three days of purchase of their produce.