Bhubaneswar: In a bid regulate all aspects of paddy and rice procurement in more efficiently, the State Cabinet today gave its nod to the Food and Procurement Policy for 2020-21 kharif marketing season.
A tentative target of 48 lakh Metric Tonne (LMT) rice has been fixed to procure and In terms of paddy this comes to around 71 LMT during 2020-21. While 54 lakh MT of paddy will be procured for Kharif, the tentative target for procurement of paddy for Rabi is 17 lakh MT.
However, there would not be any bar for procurement of any higher than the set target if more paddy comes to mandies from registered farmers.
Minister, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare has been authorized to revise this target if the need so arises.
The Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21 will commence from let October, 2020 and conclude on 30th September, 2021.
Paddy will be procured from registered farmers with Minimum Support Price (MSP). Paddy will be milled into rice by Custom Millers appointed for the purpose.
The rice so obtained will be pumped into State’s Public Distribution System (PDS) to meet needs under National Food Security Act, State Food Security Scheme & Other welfare Schemes and the surplus rice will be delivered to Central Pool through the Food Corporation of India (FCI).