As part of the ongoing national initiative to strengthen the efficiency, transparency, and digital integration of the foodgrain procurement ecosystem, the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), Government of India, organized fourth State-level workshop in Chandigarh for Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir today, i.e. 19th August.
The workshop was inaugurated by Chief Secretary, Government of Haryana and Chairman & Managing Director of FCI in the presence of Joint Secretary (Policy & FCI), Principal Secretary Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Department of the State Government of Haryana and senior officers from the Department, Food Corporation of India, and from Department of Food & Civil Supplies of Governments of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
The Chief Secretary Sh. Anurag Rastogi, IAS congratulated the Government of India and the Food Corporation of India for their progressive steps towards addressing challenges in the procurement sector. Drawing from his personal experience, he also highlighted the significant growth in procurement witnessed over the past 32 years.
CMD, FCI Sh Ashutosh Agnihotri, expressed that with the continued cooperation and support of the State Government, and by working together with the Government of India, much more can be achieved in the procurement sector. He further noted that addressing and removing the challenges faced by farmers in procurement is one of the key objectives of the Secretary, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India.
The event witnessed participation of 85 state and district-level officials of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir including Managing Directors and officials from procuring agencies in Haryana & Himachal Pradesh i.e. Haryana State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED), Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC), and Himachal Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd.
The workshop focused on capacity-building, knowledge sharing and hands-on familiarization with procurement policies and digital reforms. This workshop is part of a broader series of State-level workshops on procurement reforms, initiated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution for the 18 major foodgrain procuring states.
The aim is to enhance awareness, improve implementation of key policy measures and ensure smoother adoption of digital platforms such as Procurement Centres Self-Assessment Portal (PCSAP), Joint Physical Verification (JPV) of unmilled rice, Central Foodgrains Procurement Portal (CFPP), Central Foodgrains Storage Portal (CFSP), Agri-Stack, 10% Broken Rice mechanism, Route Optimization for Procurement & Storage Policy and the SCAN module.
The inaugural workshop was held at Chennai in Tamil Nadu on 07.08.2025. The second and third workshops were held at Raipur for Chhattisgarh on 13.08.2025 and at Chandigarh for Punjab on 18.08.2025.