State to start procurement of paddy from November 1

Kolkata: The state Food and Supplies department, for the first time this year, is providing e-pos machines to all its purchase centres for paddy procurement which is slated to start from November 1.

Presently, ration shops across the state sell foodgrains through e-pos machines that involve fingerprint authentication or retina scanning of the customer.

“The e-pos machines will ensure only genuine farmers sell their paddy at the centres. The verification of majority of the farmers has already been done through authentication of Aadhar, mobile, Krishak Bandhu portal registration and bank accounts. Those whose verification is still pending can do the same at the purchase centres,” a senior official of the department said.

A farmer can sell a maximum of 90 metric tonnes of paddy depending upon quantum of land owned by him. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy has been enhanced from Rs 2040 to Rs 2183 per quintal to safeguard the interest of small and marginal farmers. The department will also provide an incentive of Rs 20 per quintal over and above MSP to the farmers who will be selling their paddy at centralised procurement centres (CPCs), mobile CPCs and DPCs. Hence, the farmer selling paddy at CPCs, mobile CPCs and DPCs will receive Rs 2203 per quintal.

“This year, there will be 2000 purchase centres across the state and 100 mobile CPCs. There were 60 mobile CPCs last year,” added the official. The state has been procuring a maximum of 45 quintals of paddy from each farmer which has been doubled to 90 quintals in the coming season. Procurement that starts from November will be held till September next year.

The department’s procurement target has been enhanced to 70 lakh metric tonne. The target for this year was 55 lakh MT and the state managed to procure 54 lakh MT.

Registered farmers have to schedule a slot for selling paddy at any purchase centre of their choice by visiting the portal of the Food department. They can sell their paddy on the booked dates through biometric authentication (fingerprint scanning) or OTP to Aadhaar linked mobile or OTP to registered mobile number.

The department will keep special vigil to ensure that transparency is followed during the procurement process. Stern directions have been issued to ensure that paddy is procured from genuine farmers. Procurement will be done through camps run by Self-Help-Groups, farmer producer companies (FPO), primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) etc.