BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s paddy procurement for the 2026-27 kharif marketing season, scheduled to begin in the first week of November, faces a potential bottleneck as mounting rice stocks at mills have left limited storage space for the incoming crop.
The state procured a record 97.94 lakh tonne of paddy during the 2025-26 marketing season, including 77.48 lakh tonne in kharif and 20.46 lakh tonne in rabi. However, the slow evacuation of rice by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has left millers struggling to accommodate existing stocks and prepare for the next procurement cycle.
Registered rice millers have supplied more than 27 lakh tonne of custom-milled rice (CMR), of which nearly 19 lakh tonne are in the state pool. The FCI has lifted only around 8.4 lakh tonne, leaving millers with a balance delivery obligation of 25.40 lakh tonne, according to departmental sources.
With stocks exceeding available warehouse capacity, millers have urged the state government to press the FCI for faster evacuation, warning that the shortage of storage space could constrain their participation in the forthcoming procurement operation.
“The situation is alarming. The state government is continuously monitoring it and pursuing the matter with the FCI which is holding its highest-ever stock because of low demand from states,” a senior official of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department told TNIE.
Moreover, with several major states following decentralised procurement and holding adequate stocks to meet their distribution requirements, demand for additional rice from the central pool has weakened. Odisha’s predominantly parboiled rice output also faces limited demand outside the state, adding to the evacuation challenge.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra said the FCI had set a target of lifting 22 lakh tonne of parboiled rice from Odisha for the 2025-26 kharif marketing season. As of September 17, the FCI had lifted 6.23 lakh tonne of parboiled rice and 1.89 lakh tonne of raw rice.
Acknowledging the need to clear stocks ahead of the next procurement cycle, the minister said the immediate challenge is to free up mill storage capacity in time. Any further delay will complicate the movement of freshly procured paddy from mandis to mills, putting pressure on a procurement system designed to ensure timely purchases from farmers at the minimum support price, he said.