Bhubaneswar: In a major benefit for Odisha, the Centre has raised the rice procurement estimate of the state from 50 lakh tonne to 58 lakh tonne for kharif marketing season 2024-25.
“Paddy procurement estimate (in terms of rice) for KMS 2024-25 has been enhanced from 40 lakh tonne to 47 lakh tonne of kharif crop and from 10 lakh tonne to 11 lakh tonne of rabi crop,” said the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution while conveying the decision of the Centre.
The Ministry has also allowed the state government for advance lifting of rice from the central pool to meet its internal requirement under food security and supplementary nutrition programmes up to March 2026. The advance lifting should be completed by November.
With a surplus rice of 12 lakh tonne, the state government had urged the central government to increase its quota fixed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the KMS 2024-25 to create space for paddy procurement for the next kharif marketing season beginning November 1.
Officials said the state government has procured a record 92.64 lakh tonne of paddy which is equivalent to 63 lakh tonnes of rice in the last KMS as against the FCI target to lift 50 lakh tonnes of rice from the state to the central pool.
The state government was seriously contemplating to sell the surplus rice procured under the minimum support price (MSP) through tender process after its repeated request to the Centre for lifting the extra rice did not receive any positive response.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had met Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi twice in New Delhi and written several letters to him on the issue. Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo also met Joshi during a visit to Delhi recently and handed over a letter from the CM to enhance the target of custom milled rice (CMR) to align with the state’s actual paddy production.
He had also requested Joshi to take steps for extension of CMR delivery deadline from October 31 to December 31 and issue instruction to FCI to expedite evacuation of rice from Odisha.