Orissa, which ranks fifth among the states in India in rice procurement, is all set for a new record. With a bumper crop coming up this kharif season, the state is expecting to procure about 34 lakh tonne of paddy as against a target of 30 lakh tonne.

?Given the trend of arrival of paddy in the market yards, the procurement this season would far exceed the target.? state secretary for Food Supply and Consumer Welfare (FSCW) department, Madhusudan Padhi, told FE. ?We are expecting the procurement to touch 34 lakh tonne this season.?

Orissa already procured about 3.4 lakh tonne of rice more by the end of first week of January as compared to the procurement during the same time last season. About 12 lakh tonne of paddy have been procured by now as against 7 lakh tonnes the last season,.

The major procurement centers at Bargarh, Sambalpur, Kalahandi and Sonepur are now doing brisk business. Procurement from poverty zones such as Koraput have picked up this year with 70,000 tonnes. The rice procurement was 28.8 lakh tonne during the 2011-12 seaon as against a target of 28 lakh tonne.

Orissa being a DCP(de-centralized procurement) state has set a target to procure 29 lakh tonne of rice by the state civil supply corporation, FCI and other agencies. The balance 1 lakh tonne would be levy rice.

With a record procurement this season, the FSCW department is struggling to fix its storage crunch.

?We are going to face serious storage problem this season,? said Padhi. He said unless the Food Corporation of India makes necessary arrangements for clearing at least 12 lakh tonne of rice during the year, storage would become a big problem.

While the total storage capacity is 12 lakh tonne, including that of the FCI , the state will have to make arrangements for storage of another 20 to 22 lakh tonne rice this year. As the state?s rice consumption stands at 22 lakh tonne per annum, the FCI has to clear at least 12 lakh tonne rice at the rate of 1 lakh tonne every month.

The FCI need to clear surplus rice from 14 major paddy-producing districts of the state.