Bhubaneswar: The State Cabinet on Monday approved a proposal of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare (FS&CW) Department on food and procurement policy for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) for 2021-22. The proposal aims to regulate all aspects of paddy and rice purchases.
As per the approval, the Kharif Marketing Season commences from October 1 and continues till September 30, 2022. The state government will procure paddy during Kharif and Rabi seasons separately within the KMS.
Paddy will be procured from registered farmers at Minimum Support Price (MSP). Paddy will be milled into rice by custom millers appointed for the purpose and the rice obtained will be utilised in the Public Distribution System (PDS) to meet requirements under National Food Security Act, State Food Security scheme and other welfare schemes and the surplus rice will be delivered to Food Corporation of India (FCI). The surplus rice is evacuated by Food Corporation of India (FCI) to deficit states.
The main features of the approved policy are as follows:
Target
—A tentative target of 52 lakh metric tonne (LMT) in terms of rice has been fixed for KMS 2021-22. In terms of paddy, this comes to around 77 LMT. For Kharif, the tentative target for procurement of paddy would be 63 LMT and for Rabi 14 LMT. There is no bar for procurement of any higher quantum if more paddy comes to mandies from registered farmers.
—The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister has been authorized to revise this target if the need so arises.
Procurement period
The Kharif paddy will be procured in the state from November 2021 to March 2022 and the Rabi paddy from May to June 2022. The districts will schedule their procurement periods within these broad timelines.
Farmer registration
—Paddy will be procured from farmers who are registered in the online portal of the FS & CW Department.
—Aadhaar shall be only ID proof for a registered farmer to sell paddy to the government. The sale of paddy is subject to Aadhaar-based biometric identification.
Advance intimations to farmers for sale of paddy
All registered and eligible farmers shall be intimated in advance by way of SMS to their mobile phones regarding the date of sale of paddy and the quantity to be sold.
Emphasis on small and marginal farmers
—Small and marginal farmers shall be accorded priority for the sale of paddy to the government.
—There would be no imposition on farmers to keep aside a certain portion of their produce for personal consumption by their families.
—A registered farmer can sell his entire surplus, as per the approved yield rate, to the government. This will facilitate the entry of more small and marginal farmers into the procurement fold.
Minimum Support Price (MSP)
As declared by the Centre, the common variety of paddy will be procured as per MSP of Rs 1,940 per quintal and for the Grade-A variety at Rs 1960 per quintal.
