Kolkata: State Cooperation minister Pradip Mazumdar, on Wednesday, urged the cooperative societies to play a more proactive role and reach out to the remotest areas of the state for procurement of paddy ahead of the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2025-26.
“The state acknowledges the active role of the cooperative societies in putting an end to distress sale of paddy and the start of the Khadya Sathi scheme (January 2016). However, in modern times, we have come across a sense of slackness, which has resulted in engaging other agencies and adopting an alternative system to carry out the paddy procurement process smoothly. I hope that with the strengthening of the societies in recent times, our procurement, which is increasing by leaps and bounds, will be further boosted,” said Mazumdar, addressing a meeting organised jointly with state Food and Supplies department involving members of cooperative societies and Custom Milled Rice (CMR) agencies like WBECSC, BENFED, CONFED among others.
The state has introduced a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the upcoming paddy procurement during KMS 2025-26, which was discussed in detail at the meeting.
The minister said that during the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) of 2012, following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s directive, the state government began procuring rice directly from farmers to prevent distress sales. In that year, the state procured 30 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of rice, with the entire process carried out through cooperative societies.
The procurement at present is nearly 57 lakh metric tonne, and the target for the ensuing KMS, which would start from November 1, has been fixed at 68 lakh MT.
Rathin Ghosh, state Food and Supplies minister, said that in 2024-25, over 19 lakh MT paddy has been procured through 1059 cooperative societies, 4.19 lakh MT from the 560 farmer producer organisations (FPO), and 5.72 lakh MT through 1121 self-help groups.
“The farmers have a direct link with the primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS), so CMR agencies like WBECSC, BENFED, CONFED usually procure from them. In this backdrop, the PACS should be more proactive and emphasise upon organising outreach camps in remote areas for enhancing procurement rather than hosting camps in offices and expecting farmers to reach out to them,” he added.
There are 4000 registered PACS across the state, and 3000 of them have already been reconstituted through election with the hope that will further boost the procurement process.