Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers’ Welfare (APD&FW), Navin Kumar Choudhary today chaired a meeting to review the readiness of procurement portal and status of its integration with national portal for Kharif Season-2021.Commissioner Secretary Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA), Zubair Ahmad; Director APD&FW Jammu; General Manager, FCI, Jammu, Scientists (E), NIC, Jammu and other concerned attended the meeting in person and through virtual mode.At the outset, the meeting was informed that the procurement portal has been available since September during which farmers’ registration took place and the J&K portal is ready for procurement also for Kharif Season-2021 which would commence from October 1 in Jammu division.On the occasion, the Principal Secretary asked the Agriculture Department to put in place all facilities at the Mandies where procurement will take place while as directed Food Corporation of India (FCI) to take care of the rest of the procurement process.
Regarding the integration of J&K Portal with the National Portal, the meeting was informed that J&K has chosen the Tripura model and the same process is being followed here also.The meeting was informed that all the testing phase has been done and the portal is ready for procurement of Kharif Season.He impressed upon the concerned that procurement should be on a real-time basis so that data will be sent to the Central Portal in a hassle free manner.He also asked SDOs to camp themselves at the designated Mandies from October 1 to 2, 2021 to sort out issues, if any, at the locations.He further directed the respective officers to ensure that farmers receive payment within 72 hours against their produce.With respect to availability of Mandies in the Jammu region, the meeting was told that all the Mandies' locations have been identified for which tenders have also been floated by the Agriculture Department.While speaking on the occasion, Commissioner Secretary, Zubair Ahmad directed the FCI and Agriculture Department to put in all the arrangements before the actual procurement from October 1 and asked the concerned that UT portal should be duly integrated with national portal and Government of India and FCI would be informed accordingly.