Rabi paddy purchase begins

SAMBALPUR: Procurement of rabi paddy began in the district on Friday. As many as 10,000 farmers have registered to take part in the rabi procurement process. Food and Civil Supplies Officer, Sambalpur, Krushna Chandra Sethy said a target has been set to procure 7 lakh quintal of paddy in the first phase during paddy procurement for the current rabi season. On the first day, 7,646 bags of paddy were procured, he said.

The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare (FS & CW) department has decided to procure 26 quintal paddy per acre of land during the current rabi season and farmers of the district will benefit from it, Sethy said. Payment to farmers will take some time as P-PAS (Paddy Procurement Automation System) is yet to be operational due to the cyclonic storm Fani. Currently, paddy is being procured offline. Once the P-PAS becomes operational, online entry will be made and farmers can get their payments, he added.  

Apart from 10 market yards including Baraipali, Gosala, Chaunrpur and Sason in Dhankauda block, Themra, Parmanpur and Sahaspur market yards in Maneswar block, Khaliapali market yard in Jujumura block and Fasimal and Kuchinda market yards in Kuchinda block of the district, 19 purchasing centres have been opened in five blocks, including Dhankauda, Maneswar, Jujumura, Rengali and Jamankira block for hassle-free paddy procurement during this rabi season.

At least 21 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and three Large Sized Agricultural Multi-purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS), including Kulundi in Jamankira block besides Kuchinda and Fasimal in Kuchinda block, are participating in the paddy procurement process. As per reports, 12 lakh quintal of paddy was procured during the last rabi season in the district and 10,499 farmers had participated in rabi paddy procurement.

Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan vice-president  Umesh Mishra said they are expecting bumper paddy crop during the current rabi season in the district. He said the farmers are worried about inclement weather and unseasonal rain as majority of paddy crop is yet to be harvested. If everything goes well, they can achieve a bumper crop, he added.