Paddy procurement scenario in Odisha

In Orissa, paddy is synonymous with food; agriculture in Orissa to considerable extent means growing paddy. Procurement is the process of finding, agreeing terms and acquiring goods, services or works from an external source, often via a tendering or competitive bidding process. Paddy is procured at MSP at RMC markets, PACS by procurement agencies. After decentralisation of paddy procurement scheme, agencies appointed by the State Government are carrying out procurement to prevent distress sale of paddy in the State through P-PAS. P-PAS provides common platform for all the State agencies procuring paddy, namely OSCSC, MARKFED, NAFED, TDCC, NACOF & Food Corporation of India, helps in easy maintenance of accounts and effective monitoring thereby facilitates error free transactions. The total Kharif paddy procured in the state is 43831362.07 quintals wherein the highest amount is procured from Ganjam (3549721.91q) Among the thirty districts highest amount of Rabi paddy is procured from Balasore district (1139213.55 quintals) where, 137 societies have participation in procurement. The total paddy procurement for the state of Odisha for the year 2016-17 is 45.04 per cent of the total production. The introduction of P-PAS (Paddy Procurement Automation System) is expected to bear positive results for the paddy farmers of the state by timely procurement of the producers’ surplus at remunerative price by providing common platform for all the State agencies procuring paddy.