State Level Workshop on Procurement Reforms Concluded by the Government of India
Information provided regarding innovations in custom milling, physical verification of rice mills, procurement-distribution of food grains in the Food Procurement and Storage Portal
Information on registration in the Agristack portal for farmers for the upcoming Kharif season
Raipur, August 13, 2025/ A state-level workshop on procurement reforms was organized in Nava Raipur by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, with the aim of strengthening efficiency, transparency, and technical inclusion in the food grain procurement system, in which officers from the Food, Cooperation and Agriculture Departments of the state participated. The workshop was inaugurated by lighting the lamp in the presence of the chief guest of the workshop, CMD of Food Corporation of India, Mr. Ashutosh Agnihotri, Joint Secretary, Government of India, Ms. Shikha, and Food Secretary of Chhattisgarh, Mrs. Reena Baba Saheb Kangale.
On this occasion, detailed information was provided by the officials of the Government of India on topics such as innovation in custom milling, new guidelines regarding 10 percent broken rice, new standard operating procedure for joint physical verification of rice mills, Central Food Procurement Portal and Central Food Storage Portal, in which District Collectors, Food Officers and District Marketing Officers of various districts also participated.
Ms. Shikha, Joint Secretary, Government of India, while giving detailed information about the policy issued at the government level regarding broken rice in rice mills, said that currently, a scheme will be implemented to bring up to 25 percent broken rice to 10 percent through mechanical upgrading and sell the remaining broken rice in the open market. Under the guidance of the Government of India, the speed of rice procurement under the Central Pool has increased significantly with the coordination of the Food Corporation of India and the Chhattisgarh Food Department, under which 188 racks were made available to the state in the month of June for the disposal of rice, which enabled the storage of about 6 lakh metric tonnes of rice, and the rice procured in the state through FCI is being distributed under welfare schemes in other states including Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra.
It was informed in the workshop that the standard operating procedure for joint physical verification has been updated from time to time for transparency in custom milling and for improvement in the existing system and policy, and a decision has been taken to adopt an automation and software-based method for the selection of rice mills for mandatory joint physical verification. About 25 lakh farmers of the state sell paddy at the support price in 2,739 procurement centers, and the Government of India and the State Government are continuously monitoring the infrastructural improvements of these centers, for which training was given to enter the improvements made in the procurement centers through the PCSAP software. Information about the process of sending the claim of additional expenditure incurred in paddy procurement to the Government of India through the online scan module was also provided, which will enable the speedy disposal of claims, as well as discussion on route optimization for paddy procurement and rice storage. The officials of the Government of India appreciated the state for 100 percent compliance of additional minimum threshold parameters.
Food Secretary Mrs. Reena Baba Saheb Kangale provided information to the officials of the Government of India about the innovations made in paddy procurement and the public distribution system in the state, Chawal Utsav, Token Tuhar Hath and the Niyad Nellanar scheme being run in the Bastar region.
Registration on the Agristack portal has been made mandatory for farmers for paddy procurement in the upcoming Kharif year, which will control fake purchases, and in this regard, the District Collectors have been trained to ensure 100 percent registration in the coming month. At the closing ceremony of the workshop, a memento was presented to the officials of the Government of India and gratitude was expressed.
Mr. Daljit Singh, Executive Director, Procurement, FCI, Dr. Ashwini Kumar Gupta, Executive Director, Western Zone, Mr. Mateshwari Prasad Mishra, also provided necessary presentations and guidance by the Government of India in the workshop. On this occasion, Managing Director of Marketing Federation and Civil Supplies Corporation, Mrs. Kiran Kaushal, Director Food Mr. Kartikeya Goyal, Registrar Cooperation Mr. Kuldeep Sharma, General Manager FCI Mr. Devesh Yadav and other officers were present.