Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said that the government is in process of framing new farmer friendly Procurement Policy to boost agriculture activities in the state .The Minister was addressing locals after inaugurating Paddy Procurement Mandi here at Kathua where farmers would sell their produce directly to Food Corporation of India(FCI). Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh, MLA Hiranagar Kuldeep Kumar and senior govt functionaries were also present on the occasion.Around 5 places have been chosen in Kathua for procurement of Paddy this year.Highlighting the benefit of having procurement mandies, Zulfkar said the farmers had to go through lot of hardships to sell their produce at appropriate price as they had no platform to sell the same. He said that F&CSCA Department is providing them an opportunity to get maximum return of their harvest. He said that in absence of proper procurement farmers were being fleeced by the middle man. He said new procurement policy will be designed with integrated approach enabling the farmers to have easy access to the government established procurement centres/mandis/market at shortest possible distance. He added that proper calendar will be issued for operating these Mandies about which the local farmers would be informed well in advance. Minister called upon farmers to come with best quality food grains as it would be distributed to state rationees. He said that they there will be no compromise on quality of the food grains. Terming market intervention as necessary, the Minister said in the present era of rapid industrialization the contribution of Agriculture sector in GDP is declining which is a sign of worry. He said need was felt to revisit the mechanism of procurement so that farmers can be encouraged to carry on with the agriculture activities and get maximum returns due to pro farmer policies of the government.The Minister informed that the state government is also exploring the possibilities to procure Maize harvest. “The issue of Maize procurement has been taken up with Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan” he said adding that Centre has agreed on adding Maize in PDS and this year they have planned to procure 2000 MT Maize from the farmers.
“If all goes well, it will greatly benefit the farmers of the state as they can sell their surplus at procurement centres at attractive price” he said.He further informed that the Department has also taken up the issue of procurement of Coarse Grain and add the same in PDS to cater to the demand of people.Ch Zulfkar appealed farmers to avail the facility of Procurement Centers and motivate their fellow farmers to route their food grains at approved rate of Rs 1470 for paddy common and Rs 1510 for paddy grade A, which will be procured in presence of expert team of Food Corporation of India (FCI). He said the whole process of procurement, stocking and distribution through PDS is to be monitored by a team of district administration led by Deputy Commissioner.Meanwhile, Minister for Forest, Environment and Ecology Choudhary Lal Singh appreciated the efforts of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department for opening such mandies in Kathua. He termed the event as historic for the local farmers. He thanked Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali for initiating the procurement process from Kathua.MLA Hiranagar Kuldeep Kumar also hailed the food Minister for fulfilling the long pending demand of opening of new procurement centre at Hiranagar. He said the centre will help the local farmers to conveniently sell their food grains.DDC Kathua, Ramesh Kumar, SSP Kathua Pawan Parihar, Director Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Jammu, G.S Chib, GM FCI Kishore Kumar, Joint Controller Legal Metrology V.S Sambyal, district officers and large number of farmers were present.