Bhubaneswar: “No genuine farmer should be deprived of selling paddy to Government during Kharif marketing season (KMS) 2021-22”, directed Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra. He gave this direction while reviewing the progress of farmers’ registration for procurement through a video conference with Collectors from Lokseba Bhawan wherein Principal Secretary Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Vir Vikram Yadav outlined the issues for discussion.
Reviewing the district wise progress of farmers’ registration for Khariff procurement season of 2021-22, Mahapatra directed the collectors to form sufficient number of joint verification teams involving the field level officers from the departments of Agriculture & farmer’s empowerment, Cooperation, Revenue & disaster management and Water resources for hundred percent field verification of the actual farmers and their crop area. He directed to prepare the final list all the genuine farmers for paddy procurement by weeding out the possibilities of fake crop area registration, and, sealing the scope for the entry of unscrupulous middlemen into the system. Emphasising the importance of the field verification in the entire process of procurement, Mahapatra directed to conduct it with all sincerity and accuracy.
It was decided in the meeting that the field verification would be combined with verification of actual land record, land category (kisam), crop area, type and source of irrigation, bank details, mobile number of the farmers, etc. The paddy cultivated area would also be cross verified with satellite data collected through ORSAC. After registration and field verification, SMS would be sent to the farmers regarding the extent of the cultivated land registered for procurement. Payment to the farmers would be done through their bank accounts, and, all payments would be integrated with an online public financial management system (PFMS).
Principal Secretary Yadav appraised that an interactive voice recording system (IVRS) would be set up to handle farmers’ queries regarding registration and procurement. A dedicated toll-free number 1967 had been set up for receiving the telephonic grievances of the farmers. This cell would be enlarged with multiple call receiving facilities; and, utmost care would be taken to redress the grievances within 24 hours of the registration.
The review showed that the distribution of the registration forms to the farmers was started on 15 July, 2021. This year’s registration would not be a mere renewal of the old. It would be a completely new registration. It was decided that 16 August would be the last date for submission and registration of forms at the primary cooperative societies (PACS). The field verification would be completed by 7 September 2021. Digitized data updating by the PACSwould be completed by 18 September. The master list of all the genuine farmers and sharecroppers would be generated by 30 September 2021.
Further, Principal Secretary Yadav appraised that a total number17,32,948 farmers were registered, and, a total quantity of 77,32,762 MT paddy was procured during KMS of 2020-21. For KMS 2021-22, around 2,857 societies were enlisted by 15 July through whom farmer’s registration was started. By end of July, 1.74 lakh farmers were registered afresh for KMS 2021-22.
Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster management Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary Cooperation Vir Vikram Yadav, Secretary Agriculture Suresh Kumat Vashisth, Director Agriculture M. Muthukumar, Additional Secretary Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Bijaya Kumar Prusty along with senior officers from concerned departments participated in the review. The Collectors from different districts appraised the latest field situation through video conferencing.
