Bhubaneswar: The state government Monday set a target to procure 55 lakh matric tonnes (MT) of paddy during the Kharif marketing season (KMS) 2018-19 beginning from October 1.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here at the state Secretariat.
Briefing the media regarding the Cabinet’s decisions, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said that the Cabinet approved the Food and Procurement Policy for KMS 2018-19.
“Tentatively, a target to procure 55 lakh MT of paddy (equivalent to 37 lakh MT of rice) has been fixed during the Kharif and Rabi seasons. In case more paddy is available in the market, the government will procure more than the target,” he said.
Padhi said that Kharif paddy will be procured between November 2018 and April 2019 while Rabi paddy will be procured from May to June 2019.
He said that paddy will be procured from the farmers who are registered have registered on the online portal of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department. Farmers will have to provide plot details for their registration. The plot details will be verified by integration with the Bhulekh database maintained by the Revenue Department.
Paddy will be procured through Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society (PACS) and Large Area Multipurpose Co-operative Society (LAMPCS) at the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the Centre. While the common variety paddy will be procured at Rs 1,750 per quintal, the Grade- A variety paddy would be procured at Rs 1,770 per quintal, the Chief Secretary said.
Stating that two new things has been made to the policy this year, Padhi said payment of farmers’ dues on account of paddy sold to the government will be transferred directly to their bank accounts within 24 hours to 72 hours of the sale.
Similarly, the Cabinet has decided to waive the past practice of deducting towards personal consumption requirement of three quintals of paddy per member in the family. This will facilitate the entry of more small and marginal farmers and actual tillers of soil including sharecroppers into the procurement fold, he added.
Food supplies and consumer welfare secretary VV Yadav said 49.06 LMT of Kharif and Rabi paddy was procured (in terms of rice, it comes to 33.21 lakh MT) in KMS 2017-18, against the target of 55 lakh MT.
“The amount of paddy was decreased due to drought, unseasonal rain and pest attack,” Yadav said.