BHUBANESWAR: Even as Opposition members continue to disrupt proceedings of the Assembly over alleged irregularities in paddy procurement and token issuance to registered farmers, official data suggests procurement operations are largely on track.
According to official figures, 63,19,587 tonne paddy has arrived at mandis from 14,71,603 farmers as on February 22. Of this, over 63,00,132 tonne has been procured and 61,28,214 tonne lifted by rice millers, leaving around 1,71,917 tonne at the mandis. The government has already transferred Rs 17,395.89 crore including input assistance of Rs 4,102 crore to the accounts of the farmers.
For the 2025-26 kharif marketing season (KMS), the state has set a total procurement target of 93 lakh metric tonne (LMT) paddy. The kharif procurement target stands at 73 LMT (equivalent to 50 LMT of rice), while rabi procurement, scheduled between May 1 and June 30 has a target of 20 LMT (13 LMT rice equivalent). With more than five weeks remaining before the March 31 deadline for kharif procurement, the state government has expressed confidence in achieving the target.
However, ground-level challenges persist, particularly in coastal districts where procurement began late. Reports indicate that several farmers who have been issued tokens are unable to sell their produce due to slow or non-lifting by millers. Millers, on their part, attribute the slowdown to acute storage constraints.
A rice miller from a coastal district said, “Custom milling of the previous season (2024-25) is still underway, leaving little space in godowns. Further, an embargo by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) prevents milling of the current kharif paddy until the committed quota of CMR of previous year is delivered to the central pool.”
Out of 62,82,036 LMT of CMR from the last KMS, millers have delivered 57,58,226 tonne which include 31,23,235 tonne to FCI and 26,34,991 tonne to the state government. The remaining 5,75,668 tonne still to be delivered to FCI is contributing to the storage bottleneck.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had earlier enhanced Odisha’s rice procurement quota from 50 LMT to 58 LMT following repeated requests from the state, which was holding a surplus of around 12 LMT of rice.