Center plans to supply fortified rice through fair price shops in near future

Nagpur: The center plans to supply fortified rice with the help of fair-price shops in the near future. The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution has suggested to the Government of Maharashtra to encourage the establishment of very strong rice manufacturing plants as well as rice bran oil processing units around the paddy belt of Chandrapur in the Vidarbha region.

Referring to the declaration of the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets by the United Nations Agriculture and Food Organization, The central secretary of the ministry whose name is Sudhanshu Pandey. He has suggested the state to work on crop diversification, especially for the production of bajra.

Sudhanshu has also visited the paddy procurement center at Kardha in district Bhandara along with the officials of Food Corporation of India and other state agencies a day earlier. Expressed satisfaction over the operation and also advised the officials to improve the infrastructure. And he has also interacted with the farmers and encouraged them to take advantage of various schemes launched by the government.

He has told the farmers about a completely new testing method, which can also easily find out the age of the rice. Sudhanshu has also visited an FPS (fair price shop) in Kardha, Jahan and he spoke with the owner and several beneficiaries and have reportedly expressed satisfaction over the distribution of rations under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and the National Food Security Act.

Demand & Production of Pulses

On his return to this city, the Secretary also held a review meeting, which was attended by Ajay Gulhane (Chandrapur), divisional commissioner Prajakta Lavangare-Verma, State Food Department Secretary Vijay Waghmare, general manager (FCI) MS Sarang, Prerna Deshbhratar (Wardha), collectors Nayana Gunde (Gondia) and Sandip Kadam (Bhandara), and other officials.

It has also been said that solvent extraction plants for the manufacture of rice bran oil are also to be promoted in paddy districts. And also set up grain based distilleries for the production of ethanol, due to which the cultivation of maize should also be encouraged.

Sudhanshu has said that the region of eastern Vidarbha also has a rice bowl. And the rice varieties grown in this part too are traditional. But these varieties do not get satisfactory prices at all. And also due to a lack of awareness about the nutritional value of these varieties, most of the product goes into PDS. My department has taken care of each and every issue and will write to the state also.

Sudhanshu has also said that there is a gap of up to 20 percent between the production of pulses and the demand in this country. He has also said that farmers should also be encouraged to produce more groundnut, soybean, and pulses.

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