BHUBANESWAR: The State government has fixed a tentative target to procure 77 lakh tonne paddy in the 2021-22 kharif marketing season (KMS) which would yield around 52 lakh tonne rice.
A proposal in this regard was approved at the meeting of the State Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik virtually on Monday.
For kharif, the target for procurement of paddy will be 63 lakh tonne while for rabi it has been fixed at 14 lakh tonne.
Announcing this, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said that there is no bar for procurement of any higher quantum if more paddy comes to the mandis from registered farmers.
The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain has been authorised to revise the target if the need arises.
Paddy of 77.33 lakh tonnes was procured (kharif and rabi seasons) in the 2020-21 KMS. It was 52.35 lakh tonne in terms of rice.
As decided by the Centre, the common variety of paddy will be procured as per Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 1,940 per quintal and the Grade-A variety of paddy would be bought at Rs 1,960 per quintal.
The KMS has started from October 1 and will continue till September 30, 2022. The State government will procure paddy during kharif and rabi seasons separately within the KMS.
The Chief Secretary said kharif paddy will be procured in the State from November 2021 to March 2022 and the rabi paddy will be purchased from May to June 2022. The districts will schedule their procurement periods within these timelines.
The Chief Secretary said that paddy will be procured from farmers who are registered in the online portal of the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare department.
Aadhaar will be the only identification proof for a registered farmer to sell paddy to the government. The sale of paddy will be subject to Aadhaar-based biometric identification.
Priority will be given to small and marginal farmers for sale of paddy to the government, the Chief Secretary said and added that there will be no imposition on the farmers to keep aside a certain portion of their produce for personal consumption. A registered farmer can sell his entire surplus, as per the approved yield rate, to the government, he added.
The Cabinet also extended the timeline for continuance of private dealers from the present five-and-a-half years to six years as the targeted public distribution system in the State is in a transition phase.
The electronic point of sale (e-pos) device based transaction at fair price shop level is going on. The PDS is managed by 13,709 fair price shops out of which, 6,480 are institutional dealers and 7,229 are private dealers.