Paddy Procurement in Orissa S.K.Panda , S.K.Bhol , M.K.Das

ABSTRACT

The Department of Food Supply and Consumer Welfare (FS&CW) and Orissa State Civil

Supplies Corporation Ltd who primarily responsible for the Procurement of Paddy in the state of

Orissa decided to go for a Paddy Procurement Computerization in Orissa. The same may be

used by other Agencies such as NAFED , MARKFED, TDCCC & FCI which will give a clear

picture of the Paddy Procured in Orissa. This system captures the details of the farmer who

comes to sell the paddy at the Paddy Purchase Centre , Receives the Receipt of the same after

weighment and quality check then the amount is paid to the farmer through the cheque. This

application is then capture the details of the miller who lifts the paddy and mills it delivers the

rice at the Rice Receiving centre. According the same Miller raises the bill which is settled

through this application. Once the stock of the Rice is known the Delivery module is used for the

Issue of the Rice to the Retailer.

Introduction : Orissa is the land where most of the Farmers are dependent on paddy . Paddy is cultivated mainly in two seasosns of Khariff and Rabi. The surplus paddy cultivated by farmers are sold at a cheaper rate to the millers though the Government takes lot of steps to avoid distress sale of paddy. In Order to stop the distress sale of paddy the rate per quintal is fixed and communicated to all. The paddy purchased is milled and again distributed under the Rs 2 per Kg scheme to the BPL Beneficiaries . The scheme covers

37.58 lakh non AAY- BPL familiesand 5.56 lakh non BPL families in KBK District Prior to

August 2008,BPL rice was provided at a rate of Rs 6.30/Kg & Rs4.75/ Kg respectively.

In Order to bring the transparency in the existing system , Paddy Procurement System in Orissa was initialized by the former Secretary (FS&CW) Shri Manoj Ahuja , IAS and Conceptualized by Managing Director, OSCSC Ltd Shri S.K.Vasishsth , IAS. The thought process was to know the everyday’s status of the paddy procured by different agencies . The same is then delivered to the miller who receives the same by Paddy Acceptance Note . The Mills are checked by the Enforcement officer and they issue Delivery Certificate (DC) and Enforcement Certificate who mills it and then delivers at RRC / FSD as per the instruction. The RRC Receives the Rice and issue Rice Acceptance Note to the Miller. This process keeps on going till all the Rice is delivered by the Miller to the RRC /FSD. Once the process is over the miller submits his Bill for the Payment to the OSCSC Ltd at District Level. He produces all the Rice Acceptance Note during this which is verified and payment is made. The Rice Received at RRC is known to the District Office and they issue the Delivery Order for Delivery of the PDS commodities to the Retailer for distribution of the same to the Beneficiaries under different Schemes.It required a great deal of co-ordination and management of the data in order to complete this decentralization process of paddy procurement in Orissa..

NATIONAL INFORMATICS CENTRE(NIC) : A premier science and technology organization (http://www.nic.in) under the

department of Information Technology, Government of India, actively pursuing Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) applications in the government sector. NIC is providing network backbone and e-Governance support to central

government, state governments, UT administrations, districts and other government bodies. It offers a wide range of ICT

services including nationwide communication network for decentralized planning, improvement in government services and

wider transparency of national and local governments. NICNET facility has been established in all central government

departments, 35 states/UTs and over 612 District centers to facilitate informatics development for decision support and

information exchange. NICNET has 490 Video Conferencing sites connected through high speed VSATs.

Existing Method :In Orissa, Kharif Marketing Season starts from 1st October and closes on 30th

September. For every season, Govt. of Orissa prepares the Food & Procurement Policy before the start of

the marketing session. The food and procurement policy is being implemented by Food, Supplies and

Consumer Welfare Department. According to the procurement policy, different agencies are being

appointed by the department. At present, the different agencies of Orissa are OSCSC Ltd., NAFED, PACS,

FCI, TDCC and MARKFED. The department set the paddy procurement target for the agencies district wise

by analyzing the previous years’ paddy procurement volume and current year’s paddy production. The

agencies appoint custom millers to mill rice from procured paddy through their custom millers on signing an

agreement.Millers are engaged by agencies on entering into agreement as per the decision of the collector.

District level Paddy Procurement Committee is formed under the chairmanship of Collector. This Committee decides to open the Paddy Purchase Centres (PPC) in the district at different locations which are convenient for the farmers to come and sell their paddy This committee also decides, as to the schedule of the PPC, allocation of PPC to agencies. RMC yards are generally used as PPCs, if RMC is not available then PPC is opened with temporary arrangements. Each PPC is tagged with the Millers.

The staffing pattern of a PPC is a Purchase Officer (Marketing Inspector or Supply Inspector or Asst Civil

Supply Officer), Accounts staff , Sell Asst.-cum-Godown Asst, Kantawala ,RMC staff (not in all the places)

Due to the shortage in working hands, one staff is looking after operation of more than one PPC. Paddy is

procured from the farmers at the Paddy Purchase Centres by the agencies in the presence of Millers’

representatives. The details of the farmers are entered in the Purchase Register. Paddy sampling is done

at the PPC before acceptance. If the paddy is as per the specification, then it is accepted. Once, the paddy

is accepted, then it is weighed and Paddy Purchase Register & Vendor Receipt is maintained with the

quantity and amount. Two numbers of cheques are prepared for the farmer, one for MSP and another for

the bonus, and these two cheques are handed over to the concerned farmers. Presently, bonus is

calculated @ Rs. 50/- per quintal as per the instructions from Govt. of India. Paddy Acceptance Note and

Transit Passes are prepared. Paddy Acceptance Note is maintained and transit pass is given to the Millers

to take the paddy from the Paddy Purchase Centre to their Mills. At the Paddy Purchase Centres, Stock

Register and Cash Book are also maintained. On a particular day, if excess paddy is procured beyond the

intake capacity of the millers, the balance paddy is sent to storage godowns for temporary storage, which is

of rare occasion. RMC gets 2% commission on MSPs for paddy procurement.

Each PPC prepares the daily Paddy Procurement Return report and sends to the Civil Supply Officer (CSO). The CSO compiles the reports from all the PPCs and sends the report to the Head Office. Similarly, the Head Office compiles the reports from all the CSOs and sends the state report to the Government. Agency (Head Office) transfers the funds to the district office as per their requirement. In turn, the district

office transfers funds to different PPCs. The farmers receive cheques from the PPC for the paddy. The farmers en-cash cheques at nearby bank.

Role of ICT in the Proposed System

a. Miller Registration : In order to make the system transparent Food supply and consumer Welfare

department has decided to make the ONLINE registration of the millers. At the beginning of the KMS,

they can register themselves by submitting the General Information i.e name of miller, location, storage

capacity, milling capacity , Electricity consumption, VAT no, Pollution control board certificate no etc.

Then CSO will verify the submitted information and will be allowed to participate in the paddy

procurement process. CSO can decide to allow the miller to participate in the procurement process

outside the district.

b. Paddy Procurement by OSCSC / MARKFED / NAFED / TDCC : OSCSC Ltd has procured dedicated computer hardware and manpower at each district. Paddy purchase data related to OSCSC Ltd. (except through PACS as Data Entry of PACS will be done at DCCB) will come to District on daily basis. Each PPC shall be asked to maintain two sets of paddy purchase registers for this purpose. On the same day farmers data will be entered into the application developed by NIC. The Data Entry Operator will generate a checklist and submit to the Accountant for verification. Accountant will verify each entry and put his signature. Thereafter it will be sent to the Designated banks at District Headquarter. The Designated bank will prepare A/c payee cheques mentioning farmer’s name and his account number as per the list and submit back to District Manager. District Manager shall handover/transmit the cheques along with paddy purchase register to the Purchase Officer of concerned PPC. Purchase Officer shall distribute the cheques to farmers.

c. SMS Delivery : The status of the Paddy Procured by each agencies is communicated to the Secretary (FS&CW), Secretary(Agriculture), MD (OSCSC) , NAFED, MARKFED , RCS , All Collectors.

d. Acceptance Note of Paddy: An application has been developed to computerize the paddy handed over to the miller from the PACS / Market yard through the transit pass and acceptance note.

e. Acceptance Note of Paddy : Similarly, When the miller goes for the delivery of the Rice after milling to the RRC / FSD he will be issued with the Rice Acceptance Note by them . One copy of the same comes to the district office for capturing the details.

f. Delivery Order and Enforcement Certificate : An application has been developed to submit the data of the paddy received / Rice delivered by the miller. The enforcement officer verifies the mill and submits the report ONLINE through a prescribed format . Once he / she submits it, information has to be made visible to the CSO. He will check the information by going through the same and issue enforcement certificate for Levy Rice. And he will also issue the Delivery certificate to the miller. As the information has been entered for all the agencies they can generate the Delivery certificate for all.

g. Millers Bill : The Miller is engaged to lift the paddy from the Paddy Puchase centre and process it and deliver at the Rice Receiving Centre. Once the cycle is completed he raises the bill as per the Rice

delivered. The application is to verify the Rice delivered against the paddy lifted and also it takes care of expenditure of Paddy and Rice related. Through this module OSCSC can track the bill submitted and cleared of a miller for the financial year.

h. Delivery Order : For the Distribution of Rice, wheat , Sugar to the beneficiaries under different schemes the Storage Agent has to lift the stock from the RRC or FCI (FSD) as per the order of the CSO. In order to lift the stock he has to arrange the draft , approach the CSO office and gets the DO and adjust the amount if any pending and goes to RRC / FSD to lift the quota. This application is meant to issue delivery order for the storage agents of Orissa.

The main objectives of the project can be listed as:

• Farmers get immediate payment for their produce i.e. MSP at a nearby place. • PACS are strengthened financially • OSCSC Ltd. gets good quality rice for TPDS • Miller agents are able to sustain themselves • Issue of EC/ DC immediately • Know the Quantity of Rice and Paddy Available for Distribution • Issue of Delivery to the Storage Agent

Stake Holders:

FS&CW Department

All Agencies i.e OSCSC Ltd , NAFED, MARKFED , FCI , TDCC and sub Agencies PACS, PaniPanchayat, WSHG

Co-Operative Banks , Private Banks and Nationalized Banks

District Administration, CSOs, SI & MI

Farmers

Miller Agents

The Participating Department(s) in the project are

1. Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare 2. Department of Agriculture

Business Process Re-engineering

There is a system available which will indicate the paddy purchased on daily basis and the beneficiaries wand the cheque distribution to them.

It was difficult to track the quantity of paddy lifted by the Miller Agent

Accordingly the Rice was pending at the miller end months together.

Difficulties in delivering the DC and EC as the Mill Verification Report was not available and difficult to monitor how much Rice is pending for delivering.

No mechanism to know the Bill submitted by the Miller for verification at the User end.

It was difficult to issue delivery order as the stock position of RRC was not known and hence difficult to make out commodity and Schemewise monitoring.

Features :

This Application is designed in order to work as per the Work flow Process of the existing system.The

different modules are

a. Paddy Purchase

b. Paddy Acceptance

c. Rice Acceptance

d. EC / DC

e. Millers Billing

f. Delivery Order

Implementation Strategy : As the Application is web enabled application there was no need to go for pilot implementation. And it was implemented for all the agencies i.e OSCSC / NAFED / MARKFED / TDCC etc. The application has different modules and is user friendly. It captures all the details present in the paddy purchase register and is based on work flow but due to non-availability of infrastructure it has been implemented at the District level and block level. This captures the data at PPC level / District Level and then generates various reports required for everyone. From this a checklist is generated which is verified by accounts manager before sending to bankers. According to this the cheqeues are printed (A/C payee) and again delivered for disbursement to farmers and data is updated.

The copy of the purchase register is delivered through the motor bike rider everyday evening at the district office.

On the same day he will carry back the cheques to the PPC for disbursement to the farmers.

When Miller lifts the Paddy and Delivers paddy he gives the paddy acceptance and issued with Rice acceptance Note from which one copy is sent to the District office which are captured through the application. It gives the status of paddy received by a miller and delivery of rice against him.

Similarly , when the Rice is ready for delivery , an inspection officer goes and verify the same and then issue Delivery Certificate and if it is levy rice Enforcement Certificate is given through system to the miller so that he can deliver the same at RRC. Once Rice is delivered at RRC then CSO gives delivery certificate to the Storage agent under different scheme for distribution to the Retailer.

Once Rice is delivered , the miller submits bill and the data is verified through the acceptance note submitted by him through application and then bill is released for payment. It keep tracks of the bill paid to a particular miller in a Financial Year and doesnot allow to pay for the rice which has not been delivered. Paddy Purchase Committee : The committee sits on every Monday to discuss the issue if any regarding online flow of data from PPC. The meeting is presided by the Secretary (FS&CW)

Challenges Faced

OSCSC 87%

NAFED 6%

MARKFED 5%

TDCC 2% FCI

0%

Paddy Procurement - 2010-11 (Khariff)

303059

23523 11990 3086 75

OSCSC Nafed Markfed TDCC FCI

Paddy Sold by Farmers 2010-11

Series1

a. The Paddy Purchase Centres are usually opened at GP Level where it was difficult to get good connectivity, electricity so that the user can work on the system when the farmer will come to sell his paddy he need not wait for long.

b. The handwritten registers were not legible sometimes. c. The data was entered and got verified by the accounts manager were not willing to take the extra

burden. d. At times the data handed over to bank was not verified properly for issuance of cheques. e. Millers did not register online for participation in the paddy procurement process.They hesitated to

disclose their relevant information. f. CSOs did not verify the millers and allow them to participate. g. SI /MI were reluctant to enter the data of the verification of the mills and it created problem for

verification of DC / EC. h. There were no proper co-ordination among the Accounts Manager and Asst Programmer.

Solutions and Lessons Learnt

a. It was decided to have two registers and one will be taken by the motor cycle rider and handed over to the DEOs at district level for capturing the data and other one will be in use and vice versa.

b. The Offcials were trained during the training period to enter each parameter properly as they will be in use at a later stage.

c. Intensive training were given to the DEOs / Asst Programmers / Bankers / MIs /Sis /ACSOs/ Accounts Managers/ CSOs and review were held.

d. Lessons Learnt : To make the project successful, each link of the process is important and they have to trained properly. This should also reduce their routine activity so they will interested in carrying out the job. For a successful project the main factor is that it should be work flow based rather than only to capture information.

Annexure – I Paddy Procurement Report – OSCSC

District Wise Paddy Acceptance

Mill Wise Paddy Acceptance

EC / DC Issues

EC/ DC Issued

RRC Wise Acceptance Report

Mill Wise Rice Acceptance Report

Differential Report

Annexure - II

Paddy Procurement Application

Paddy Purchase Register

Paddy Purchase Register

PPC Wise Paddy Purchase

Paddy Acceptance by Miller

Paddy Acceptance Report

Mill Wise Paddy Acceptance Report

EC /DC Issued

Enforcement Certificate

Issuing new DC

Rice Acceptance Note

Rice Acceptance Report

Submission of Bill

Delivery Order