BHUBANESWAR: Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra on Monday said there will be no increase in paddy procurement limit during the current kharif marketing season 2025-26.
The statement of the minister came at a time when western Odisha farmers have raised a banner of revolt protesting delay in issuance of tokens and non-operationalisation of mandis.
Admitting that there were issues with token distribution for paddy procurement, the minister told mediapersons here that they were resolved in a meeting on Sunday. Officials have been directed to issue tokens and paddy is being procured as per guidelines, he said.
“Farmers can keep their surplus paddy or sell it in the open market after supplying their pre-fixed quota under minimum support price. The paddy procurement limit will not be increased,” he said.
Patra’s assertion on not procuring more paddy than the target, however, runs contrary to the decision taken by the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Odisha Food and Procurement Policy for KMS 2025-26. While fixing the procurement target at 93 lakh tonne of paddy (equivalent to around 63 lakh tonne in terms of milled rice) for KMS 2025-26, the policy said there was no bar on procurement of any higher quantum if more paddy comes to paddy purchase centres/mandis from registered farmers.
The procurement target for kharif paddy is set at 50 lakh tonne in terms of rice (equivalent to 73 lakh tonne of paddy) and 13 lakh tonne in terms of rice (equivalent to 20 lakh tonne of paddy) in rabi.
The state government has adopted a policy to procure a set quantity of paddy per acre, historically around 19 quintal for irrigated land and 12-13 quintal for non-irrigated land, though this has often led to farmer protests as actual yields are higher, causing unsold surplus.
The per acre yield has not been revised for nearly a decade, official sources said. This has been resented by farmers as the actual production per acre is far more that the crop yield estimate by the directorate of Agriculture and Food Production. The issue had been raised several times in the Assembly by the Congress and also the BJP when it was in Opposition.