Even as the State Government has pegged the paddy procurement target at 45 lakh MT for this Kharif Marketing Season (KMS), a whopping of around 9.6 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of the total paddy procured last KMS is still lying un-milled with the State agencies till October end.
What looks worrying is as per the normal practice, the entire procured quantity should have been sent for custom milling to millers within three months of procurement. But of the total procurement of over 52 lakh MT paddy in 2014-15 KMS, a high of over 18 per cent un-milled paddy is still lying with the State agencies that raises eyebrows over the food grain management of the State.
With Food and Civil Supplies Department (F&CS) remaining tight-lipped, experts attribute State sitting over un-milled paddy to two serious lapses. First, as the State has failed to set up rice mills in tandem with increased procurement, godowns might see stocking up of huge un-milled paddy. And, the second could be due to refusal by the millers to lift the paddy for custom milling. The reason: Sub-standard quality of paddy.
Though the mismanagement gets starkly revealed in both cases, if it’s the second reason then the lapse not only looks grave but also raises the
stink of fraud as the procurement norms have very categorically asked the procurement agencies to accept paddy that only conforms to the mentioned standards. Sources in the F&CS Department revealed that most of the un-milled paddy belongs to western and southern districts of the State.
Moreover, the Odisha Right to Food activists fear that since long-term paddy stocking is challenging and damaging, the State could see wastage of over 6.4 lakh MT of rice, which then would be big fraud on the people when State is under severe drought.
According to farmer organisation Odisha Navanirman Krushak Sangh, previous paddy baggage could hamper the new procurement affecting the farmers most, especially when the State is reeling under serial farmer suicides.
Besides, the rate of paddy procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP) vis-a-vis total production in Odisha has slid to around 48 per cent in 2014-15 against 50 per cent during the period 2011-13. An analysis put the figures in Punjab and Haryana at over 60 - 70 per cent.
Moreover, the average procurement of rice equivalent paddy in Chhattisgarh during 2012-15 has been 41 lakh tons against around 33lakh tons in Odisha. Farmer organisations blame this fall in procurement-production proportion to mess in farmer registration and lesser procurement centres in rice surplus districts.
Interestingly, Odisha joined the Decentralised Procurement (DCP) Scheme with the prime objective to cover more farmers under the MSP fixed by Centre.
The State Government through its procurement centres would procure rice from surplus districts so as to prevent farmers from selling their produce below the MSP, which is a certain possibility during the peak season. But data suggests otherwise as at places farmers sell their produce below MSP in rice surplus districts of Koraput and Bargarh. Reason: lesser procurement centres than actually required.