Odisha To Procure 71 Lakh Tonnes Of Paddy This Season

Bhubaneswar: For the 2022-23 Kharif Marketing Season (KMS), the State government on Friday set a goal of 71 lakh tonnes of paddy procurement. The State Cabinet headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik adopted the food procurement policy.

The 48 lakh tonne of rice procurement objective was stated by Chief secretary Suresh Kumar Mahapatra. According to him, 57 lakh tonnes will be the target of paddy procurement for Kharif season and 14 lakh tonnes for rabi. Beginning on October 1, 2022, and concluding on September 30, 2023, is the KMS 2022-23.

If more paddy is sent to the mandies from registered farmers, the chief secretary claimed there is no restriction to purchasing any bigger quantity. Paddy (Kharif) will be procured from November 2022 to March 2023 and paddy (rabi) from May to June 2023

Within these general time frames, districts will plan their purchase periods. Paddy will be procured from farmers registered on the Department of Food and Consumer Welfare’s online portal. The sale of paddy is subject to Aadhaar-based biometric identification.

The Chief Secretary stated that land details in paddy growing areas are being verified by satellite imagery and according to the mechanisms that the department will set, the veracity of the land information will be checked.

The date of the paddy sale and the amount to be sold will be communicated in advance by SMS to all the registered and eligible farmers. According to him, priority will be given to small and marginal farmers in the paddy selling process to the government.

He further stated that there would be no requirement for farmers to set aside a specific amount of their harvest for family consumption and that a registered farmer might sell all of his excess produce to the government at the permitter yield rate. Thanks to this, more small and marginal farmers can join the procurement process.