The district level committee in Nuapada decided that procurement of paddy for the current Kharif season would start from November 19.
A meeting of the committee held under the chairmanship of district Collector Jaykumar V on Thursday decided to engage all the 26 PACSs (Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies) and SCSs (Service Cooperative Societies) in the district to procure paddy on behalf of the State Civil Supply Corporation limited. MARKFED will also be allowed to procure paddy directly from the farmers in the Mandis.
While no target has been set by the Government in the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare department till date, the target for the season will be generated at the PACS, block, district level as per online registration and updating. “There would be no direct involvement of millers in the process of paddy procurement from farmers as it used to be in the past. The millers will lift their stocks from the PACSs,” said the Collector in the meeting. A total of 31 millers will participate this year in the procurement operation and custom milling.
In 2013-14 Kharif season, the procurement was done by two State agencies – PACS and MARKFED. These agencies had procured 1,01,767 metric tonne (MT) of paddy in total through 58 paddy purchase centres (PPCs/Mandi), which was 92.27per cent of the target fixed by the Government for last year. Both these agencies will continue to operate through 50 PPCs during the current season.
The procurement figure in 2012-13 was 11, 16,711 quintals, which dipped by approximately 9 per cent during 2013-14. “less procurement does not always mean less production, it might also happen due to check in corruption,” said BJP leader from Khariar Sanjay Tiwari.
“Illegal and backdoor purchase of paddy by millers was checked to a larger extent during 2013-14 due to close monitoring and regular stock verification of millers, which resulted in a decrease in figure,” said the district Collector adding that the figure might further dip this year.
The district committee fixed the upper limit of selling of paddy by farmers at 15 quintals per acre for non irrigated and 20 quintals for irrigated lands. The farmers will bring FAQ paddy to PPCs along with proof of identity and bank pass book. Payment to the farmers will be made in account payee cheques or through online bank transfer preferably within three days, but not later than seven days.
Discussion on the Custom Milling of Rice (CMR) revealed that, delivery of CMR by millers during 2013-14 was much higher than the previous year. The achievement was 93 per cent of the total due, where as it was less than 50 per cent in the previous year. It was decided that, the millers, who have not cleared the previous year’s due, would not be allowed to take part in the 2014-15 season.