Odisha focus to prevent distress sale of paddy

CUTTACK: To check harassment of farmers and prevent distress sale of paddy during the kharif season, state food supplies minister Surya Narayan Patro on Tuesday directed collectors to review the paddy procurement process on a daily basis in their respective districts.
Patro has clearly directed that farmers should be paid their money within 24 hours of unloading their produce at the mandis.Similarly, the minister also directed the government officials engaged in the paddy procurement process to ensure that millers lift the crop within 24 hours from the mandi.
The paddy procurement for kharif season has began from November 1 and to ensure that the entire process is carried out in systematic manner and farmer friendly manner, Patro on Tuesday convened a special meeting at the central revenue divisional commissioner(RDC) office here.
Collectors, civil supplies officers and other government officials of ten districts(that fall under central RDC) participated in the meeting.
The minister also highlighted that farmers can register their name with cooperative societies for paddy procurement without the Aadhaar card also. “Aadhar is not mandatory for farmer registration. The farmers who don’t have Aadhar, they can submit Kishan credit card, Biju Krushak kalyan yojana card, voter identity cards etc,” said Patro.
Collectors of central range districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jagatsingpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh and Puri participated in the meeting organized to streamline paddy procurement process.
On the occasion RDC D V Swamy directed the collectors to monitor the procurement process regularly and to ensure that farmers are not harassed in any manner.
The state government has set a target to procure total 53 lakh metric tonne (MT) of paddy during 2017-18. The government has fixed a minimum support price of paddy at Rs 1,550 per quintal for normal variety and Rs 1,590 per quintal for grade-A variety.
The government has decided to procure 19 quintals of paddy per acre from irrigated land and 12 quintal per acre in case of non-irrigated land.
Besides, the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation, agencies like Food Corporation of India, Markfed and Tribal Development Co-operative Corporation of Odisha Limited would also be engaged in paddy procurement. The state government has opened 3,064 mandis for the entire operation while 1436 millers would be engaged in the paddy procurement system in 2017-18.