Buoyed by bumper paddy production and successful market intervention of procurement, the State Government on Saturday announced an ambitious rice procurement target of 40 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in this year’s Kharif and Rabi marketing seasons.
Minister of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Pratap Kesari Deb is known to be happy with the procurement process and has green-signalled a proposal for a hike in procurement. Compared to the previous season, the target has been increased by eight lakh MT.
“Considering the bumper production of paddy, we have hiked rice procurement to 40 lakh MT, which was earlier 30 lakh MT and then 35 lakh MT. We will have to collect 58 lakh MT of paddy to achieve the target,” said Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department Madhusudan Padhi.
Meanwhile, the Government-appointed agencies have procured 44.75 lakh tonnes of paddy even as procurement process will continue till September.
The Government had set a target to procure 32 lakh MT of rice in 2011-12 but actually collected 29 lakh MT. The procurement targets of almost all the coastal districts, traditionally considered major consuming districts of the State, have been revised.
The paddy procurement has already crossed the targets set for western Odisha districts of Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Kalahandi asa well as for southern Koraput district. The target for Bargarh in the western region, considered the rice bowl of the State, has also been revised, said Padhi.
According to sources, the Government has revised the targets for almost all the districts. However, the Government is facing storage problems with this increasing procurement. The Food Corporation of India has been requested to remove the rice procured from Odisha to other States to make adequate space for storage, sources added.
The State has 60 FCI godowns having six-lakh tonne storage capacity and 270 other godowns to store four lakh-odd tonnes. The State requires a minimum storage capacity of 18 lakh tonnes to meet the demand.