BHUBANESWAR : Burdened with unsold kharif paddy seeds of about 80,000 quintals, the Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) is staring at a huge loss this season. As per conservative estimates, the corporation may incur a loss to the tune of Rs 9 crore.
As the corporation is yet to start the process for disposal of the unsold stock as non-seed, sources in OSSC said, the seeds which were purchased at high cost may not even get the minimum support price of Rs 2,183 per quintal announced by the central government. The current market price of non-seed paddy is Rs 1,800-1,900 per quintal.
The all-in cost of certified seeds of less than 10 years variety was fixed at Rs 3,650 per quintal which was supplied to the farmers at a subidised rate of Rs 2,100 per quintal. An average loss of Rs 1,200 per quintal will come around Rs 9.6 crore which is difficult for the corporation to bear as it is mandated to do the business on no-profit and no-loss basis.
In the tender process, the cost of non seeds per quintal will be quoted by the tenderer who will bear all charges of transport, weighment, loading, unloading and labour cost. The highest bidder is preferred by the corporation. “It has been estimated that the corporation may sustain a loss of about Rs 8-9 crore. It all depends on the market price paddy and the price quoted by the bidders,” said OSSC sources.
The corporation may be able to dispose of about 10,000 quintals of short-duration paddy seeds during the ensuing rabi season. The remaining 70,000 quintals will have to be sold as non-seed, it added. The state government has given a target to OSSC for procurement of 4 lakh quintals of paddy seeds for the 2023 kharif season against which the corporation had kept a stock of 2.67 lakh quintal due to low demand from the farmers. It could sell 1.87 lakh quintal, the lowest ever by the corporation in the last 15 years.
Sources said, the direct benefit transfer system is acting as a spoiler. Farmers are not keen to purchase paddy paying Rs 3,650 per quintal upfront to get the subsidy at a later stage. They meet their seed requirement from open market which comes cheaper. For similar reason, the seeds corporation had an unsold stock of 45,000 quintal during last kharif season, the sources said.