Sambalpur: Procurement of Kharif paddy would begin in Odisha from November 5, said Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Surya Narayan Patro on Wednesday.
Talking to mediapersons after presiding over a meeting at the RDC office here, he said in the first phase, the paddy procurement would begin from Bargarh and Kalahandi districts.
Stating that the state government has set a target to procure 55 lakh metric tonne of paddy during kharif marketing season (KMS) 2018-19, Patro said the payment of farmers’ dues on account of paddy sold to the government shall be transferred directly to their bank accounts through online mode. All such payments shall be made within 24 to 72 hours of their sale of paddy.
The paddy will be procured by the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) from all the districts and if necessary, other state agencies will be deployed in rice-surplus districts only.
The OSCSC and other agencies shall procure paddy through PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Society), Large Area Adivasi Multipurpose Cooperative Society (LAMPCS), Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) and Pani Panchayats, while emphasis will be given on opening of adequate number of Paddy Purchase Centres (mandis) by the societies on behalf of procuring agencies.
The paddy will be procured from the farmers, who are registered on the online portal of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department. The 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 and Disaster Management department.
The paddy will be procured as per the Minimum Support Price (MSP) as announced by the Centre. While the common variety paddy will be procured at Rs 1750 per quintal, the Grade-A variety paddy would be procured at Rs 1770 per quintal.
The state government has decided to waive the earlier practice of deducting towards personal consumption requirement of three quintals of paddy per member in the family of the farmer for computation of marketable surplus of paddy from KMS 2018-19. This will facilitate the entry of more small and marginal farmers and actual tillers of soil including sharecroppers into the procurement fold.
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