Govt to procure local paddy at ₹25 per kg
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, September 16 2022: As part of the public distribution system under National Food Security Act (NFSA), the state government is all set to procure paddy from the farmers of the state at the rate of Rs 25 per kg, said CAF&PD minister L Susindro on Thursday.

Speaking to The People's Chronicle, Susindro informed that the government is planning to procure rice from the farmers of the state for public distribution at subsidised rate under NFSA and other schemes and reduce dependency on rice procured from other states.

Under this initiative, the government would be making bulk purchase of paddy from the state farmers.

A modern rice mill will be installed in December this year for milling the paddy procured from the farmers.

The rice mill will have the capacity of milling 3 MT per hour.

The government is also planning to install two such mills though there will be only one mill in the first phase, he said.

Regarding the procurement of paddy from the farmers, the minister said that the department will use only women labourers for the purpose and they can register themselves through a dedicated portal, which will be launched shortly.

As the initiative will require additional manpower, the department will recruit 40 staffers of different posts on contract basis.

Some of the posts will require qualifications like MBA, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, computer knowledge among others.

Apart from the new staff, the department will utilise some of its existing personnel for the operation.

As of now, the department has not begun procuring paddy from the farmers but is planning to begin from this year onwards.

The department officials will conduct regular field visit to ensure smooth implementation and functioning of the initiative, he said.

Susindro further said that the government has earmarked Rs 84 crore in the state budget for the purpose.

The procurement will be conducted under a proper system through a procurement committee.

The women labourers to be utilised for procuring paddy from different sources will be selected under a certain criteria and procurement will most likely begin from December onwards.

An App will be used for entering details of the procurement and the same App is being developed by NIC, he said.

The procured paddy will be moved to the rice mill after conducting moisture test.

As per report, the rice yield after milling paddy is only about 67 per cent.

The mill will filter out broken rice and they will be packed separately.

As of now, farmers are selling paddy at the rate of Rs 17 per kg but the government is providing Rs 25 per kg under the initiative, he added.

Susindro also informed that the whole rice will be used for public distribution while the broken rice will be used in producing poultry feed as well as liquor production, which the government is in the process of legalising it .

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