Paddy procurement during Kharif in 2014-15 grew by 21 per cent over the preceding year with a total procurement of around 40 lakh tonnes achieved.
It was revealed at the State level Procurement Committee meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary GC Pati at the State Secretariat on Saturday. Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Secretary Madhusudan Padhi presented the updates.
Pati advised the department to review the online system of farmers’ registration and wipe out tribulations so as to make the system error-free. It was decided that fresh farmers’ registration for coming Khariff season would be done in advance by the banks/PACS at the time of disbursement of crop loans.
As of now, 7,82,917 farmers for Khariff and 1,55,493 farmers for Rabi have been registered.
It was also revealed that the Paddy Procurement Automation System ( P-PAS) has been implemented successfully in 60 high procuring blocks last season. Around 46 per cent of the total paddy procured has been transacted through this system and around 2,28,816 farmers have been benefited out of it.
Pati directed to extend the system to 160 blocks during coming Kharif season. Similarly, the P-PAS would be applied in 36 blocks of 12 high procuring districts.