BHUBANESWAR: Even as the state government has decided to procure the highest-ever 79 lakh tonne paddy in 2023-24 kharif marketing season, lack of storage facilities at panchayats will emerge as a major challenge for procurement agencies.
The state government, which has been buying paddy from farmers under decentralised procurement system since 2003-04 has so far constructed 290 godowns at the primary society level creating a storage capacity of 87,000 tonne.
At present, the state has 2,708 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) of which 215 are large area multi-purpose cooperative societies (LAMPS), the main paddy procurement agencies for the state government. The government has decided to open 1,300 new primary societies which will take the total to 4,008.
The state government had decided to construct 298 godowns of 300 tonne capacity under Rastriya Krishi Vikash Yojana in 2010-11. Eight project proposals had to be dropped due to unavailability of land.
“Of the 2,708 PACS/LAMPs, more than 200 societies are functioning from rented accommodations as they do not have their own buildings despite yearly budgetary provision being made by the government since 2015-16. When they do not have their own office buildings where will they store paddy procured from the farmers?,” wondered former MLA and BJP Krushak Morcha president Pradip Purohit.
He said the State Warehousing Corporation has more than 5.71 lakh tonne of storage capacity across the state as they have godowns in all districts. However, the godowns have been rented out to the Food Corporation of India for storage of rice, wheat, fertiliser and other agricultural goods. The godowns are not available for storage of paddy.
The state government largely depends on registered rice millers who mill paddy and deliver rice to the FCI.The millers do not lift paddy from mandis on time leading to delay in procurement and resulting in tokens issued to farmers getting lapsed. Around two lakh farmers could not sell their paddy last year due to lapsed tokens, Purohit said.
As most of the PACS are generating decent revenue (two per cent commission from paddy procurement) they are in a position to construct godowns but land is a major issue, official sources said.