Odisha govt to set up 6,000 threshing floors to raise FAQ of paddy

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 30:

The Odisha government today decided to set up 6,000 threshing floors in the state at an investment of Rs 544 crore in an attempt to raise FAQ (fair average quality) of paddy.

According to a senior official of the Cooperation department of the state government, threshing floors would be constructed mostly in coastal areas and in paddy producing districts.

The official said the decision to go for construction of threshing floors was taken at a high level meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. He said work on these will start from next fiscal and will be completed within a span of three years.

The threshing floors will be jointly developed by the departments of Agriculture and Cooperation. One threshing floor will be available for every 5,000 farmers, he said.

The official said since Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been often refusing to lift paddy harvested from Odisha raising questions on FAQ, the government, as per operational guidelines under the state plan scheme, decided to set up the threshing floors.

The size of each threshing floor will be 520 square meters or 400 sq meters keeping in view the demands.

While threshing floor projects involving more than Rs 10 lakh would be awarded through e-auction, local officials can give work orders to contractors for those with less amount, the official said.