BHUBANESWAR: Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik on Saturday advised all the agencies involved in paddy procurement to further strengthen the infrastructure available with them during the current kharif marketing season. Reviewing the paddy procurement and storage facilities at a high-level meeting, the Chief Secretary asked the Cooperation Department to create multipurpose additional storage facilities at primary agriculture cooperative society (PACS)- level for storage of both paddy and rice. The Government had procured 25 lakh MT of rice during the last kharif marketing season (KMS) ending September against a target of 32 lakh MT. While rice millers have delivered 20 lakh tonnes of rice to the Food Corporation of India, another five lakh tonnes of rice could not be delivered due to shortage of storage space.Although storage capacity for three lakh tonnes was added last year, the meeting decided to create an additional storage facility at PACS level. The rice procurement in the last kharif marketing season fell short of the target due to drought and un-timely rains. Government agencies like Orissa Civil Supplies Corporation (OCSC), MARKFED, NAFED, TDCC and FCI were engaged in the procurement process last year. The State Civil Supplies Corporation procured paddy from farmers through PACS while the Government had engaged select Women Self Help Groups (WSHG), Pani Panchayats and regional marketing committees (RMCs) in the procurement business. As procurement done through PACS and WSHGs have been encouraging, the Chief Secretary emphasised on the need to strengthen the infrastructure at PACS-level. Bulk of the paddy procurement was done by the PACS. The PACS made a record rice procurement of 18.35 lakh tonnes of rice. The Centre has already announced the minimum support price for paddy at ` 1,080 a quintal for common variety and Rs. 1,110 for ‘A’ grade paddy. Food Corporation of India was advised to prepare detail schedule of lifting of rice from State agencies. The Chief Secretary has also advised the procurement agencies to send online data regarding daily procurement with the names of farmers. Procurement agencies not having Internet connectivity were advised to make use of common service centres for transmission of data. The Civil Supplies Department was asked to submit the detailed plan for paddy procurement to the Government within a week to prepare the food procurement policy. Food and Civil Supplies Secretary Madhusudan Padhee, Co-operation Secretary Mona Sharma, Agriculture Secretary RL Jamuda, ST & SC Development Secretary Santosh Sadangi, Civil Supplies Corporation managing director S Vasistha and representatives from FCI, MARKFED, NAFED and TDCC participated in the discussions.
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