Paddy procurement for kharif season in Odisha to start from Nov third week

The Odisha government has decided to commence procurement of paddy from farmers for the kharif season 2024 from the third week of November, a minister said on Tuesday.

The procurement will start from Bargarh district, he said.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee, held under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo on Monday.

This will be the first procurement season after the BJP came to power in the state this year.

"The BJP government is committed to fulfilling its promise to buy paddy at Rs 3,100 per quintal. An additional input subsidy of Rs 800 per quintal of the crop will be given to farmers over and above the minimum support price of Rs 2,300 fixed by the Centre," said Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari, who was present at the meeting.

During the meeting, modalities to be adopted at the mandi (marketing yard) level were finalised to make the entire procurement hassle-free for farmers, he said.

It was also decided in the meeting that officials would be deployed at the marketing yards till completion of the process and they would report to the government on a daily basis through a dedicated portal, Pujari told reporters.

He said a supervisor will be in charge of four to five mandis.

Besides, each mandi will have a quality testing machine to check the fair average quality of the harvested paddy coming for sale.

The transport department would supervise the transportation of paddy from mandi to rice mills, the minister said, adding that district collectors have been authorised to take decisions at their level to safeguard the interest of farmers.

He also said patrolling teams have been deployed in border districts to ensure that paddy from neighbouring states does not enter Odisha for sale in the mandis during the procurement period.

The government set a target to procure 80 lakh tonne paddy in the current kharif marketing season (KMS) 2024-25.