The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will now put in place a ‘Quality Assurance Mechanism’ for ensuring superior quality of food grains are received at its godowns in Chhattisgarh.
The FCI would soon seek services of a 'Service Provider' to be selected by it for Quality Assurance and checking of food grains during receipt, their preservation and maintenance, despatches and also issue of food grains from FCI godowns in the State, officials stated.
It may be mentioned here that the State Agriculture Department has decided to procure paddy through the Co-Operative Societies' Procurement Centre from November 16, 2015.
Notably as on August 2015, Chhattisgarh was second in the country during the Kharif season among a list of 18 States with targetted procurement of 36 lakh metric tonnes of paddy crop during 2015-16.
Punjab is ranked first in the country this Kharif season among 18 states in the country with paddy procurement target of 82 lakh metric tonnes , according to the data of 18 states released by the Centre.
In a meeting of State Food Secretaries held in New Delhi, the procurement target for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2015-16 was finalised at a total of 300 lakh metric tonnes in the rice growing states.
States have been asked to identify immediately areas with maximum paddy production and to open adequate purchase centers and deploy sufficient manpower. They have also been advised to make arrangements for publicizing MSP fixed, procurement centers opened through print and audio-visual media as well as through pamphlets in local languages, officials stated.
The Governments have also been asked to prepare details of storage plan for the ensuing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) and have an action plan to meet the deficit in storage requirements, if required, they stated.
Regarding Packaging material, Food Secretaries were requested to place indents for purchase of jute bags in time to avoid last minute shortage of packaging material.
The States were also requested to furnish, on daily basis, the revenue district-wise procurement details of previous day for Online Procurement Monitoring System (OPMS).
The FCI was directed to constitute joint teams with the State Governments to oversee the conduct of procurement operations and to attend specific complaints, problems etc, officials stated.
FCI also carries out carry out sale of damaged food grains (both wheat and rice) unfit for human consumption for use as manure, feed for animals and industrial purposes from its various depots in Chhattisgarh, official stated.
The damaged food grains not issuable for human consumption is categorised as ‘ Feed-I, II & III, Industrial use and manure.
On the other hand, the paddy husk remaining after milling of rice is also not being wasted and being used for power generation in Chhattisgarh.
On the industrial front, Chhattisgarh currently has biomass projects generating a total of 249 MW of power as on March 31, 2015.
The total power generation from biomass projects by 12 other states during the aforesaid period in Megawatts is as follows- Andhra Pradesh ( 288), Gujarat ( 30.50), Haryana ( 13.50), Karnataka ( 107.50), Madhya Pradesh (26), Maharshtra ( 198), Odisha ( 20), Punjab ( 68.50), Rajasthan ( 101), Tamil Nadu ( 211.70), Uttar Pradesh ( 54) and West Bengal ( 26).
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is promoting efficient utilization of biomass like Agro-industrial and agricultural residues including paddy straw for power generation in the country.
Fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional customs duty, excise duty exemption, 10 years income tax holiday and preferential tariff are provided for biomass power projects.
The MNRE provides Central Financial Assistance at the rate of Rs25.00 lakh per Mega Watt in special category States and Rs20 lakh per Mega Watt for other States with a cap of Rs1.50 crore per project.
The Minister further stated that some of the biomass projects have been facing problem of non-viable operations due to high price of biomass and low tariff of electricity in some States. 165 biomass projects with a total capacity of about 1400 Mega Watts have been set up in the country as on March 31, 2015.
Chhattisgarh produced 527.63 lakh cubic meters of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large bio-gas plants in the entire State during the 11th Five Year Plan period.
The estimated State-wise production of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large biogas plants installed in the country under different programmes of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) during the 11th Five Year Plan period is as follows (in lakh cubic metres)- Andhra Pradesh (9969.60), Assam(1616.33) Bihar (2325.94) Goa (71.83) Gujarat (8731.94) Haryana (1112.13) Himachal Pradesh (842.47) Jammu & Kashmir (47.44) Jharkhand (107.19) Karnataka (8213.62) Kerala (2399.30) Madhya Pradesh (5713.25) Maharashtra(15297.74) Manipur (38.80) Meghalaya (146.30) Mizoram (72.40) Nagaland (95.83) Odisha (4402.65) Punjab (2966.70) Rajasthan (1235.30) Sikkim (144.66) Tamil Nadu (5261.66) Tripura (53.25 )Uttar Pradesh(7765.80) Uttarakhand (531.37) West Bengal (6213.70).
About 6.10 lakh family type bio-gas plants were installed during the 11th Five Year Plan against a target of 6.47 lakh plants under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme.
The marginal shortfall in achievement was reported to be due to increase in cost of construction of bio-gas plants.
As per an evaluation study carried out by an independent agency, about 95 per cent of the surveyed bio-gas plants installed during the 11th Five Year Plan were found to be functional.