Bhubaneswar: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has urged his cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal to instruct the Food Corporation of India to procure an additional 10 lakh metric ton of parboiled rice from Odisha during the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2023-24.
On Tuesday, Pradhan wrote to the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution Piyush Goyal and said, “I request you to kindly issue instruction to FCI to procure 10 LMT of parboiled rice from Odisha in the KMS 2023-24 in addition to augmentation of procurement target, which will significantly help secure the livelihood of lakhs of farmers in the state whose main source of earning has been through MSP operations of paddy procurement.”
Stating that Odisha is the fourth-largest paddy producing state in the country, Pradhan said during the Kharif season 2023-24, the state’s rice yield has been phenomenal and procurement has already commenced which is accruing good returns to lakhs of farmers through MSP operation.
Due to the bumper harvest, it is estimated that approximately 79 LMT rice will be collected in KMS-2023-24 in the state of Odisha, Pradhan said in the letter.
Pradhan mentioned that the central government has allocated a target of procuring 44.28 LMT of rice in the KMS 2023-24 in the initial allocation target. However, besides meeting the state’s own requirement of rice for NFSA, SFSA and other welfare schemes, enough parboiled fortified rice would be left which needs to evacuated by the FCI, the Union Education Minister, who belongs to Odisha, said in the letter.
PTI