Centre relaxes Paddy FAQ norms for farmers of 15 Dist in Odisha

ONI Bureau:  The Centre has agreed to relax fair average quality (FAQ) norms for the procurement of paddy in 15 districts of Odisha where the crops were affected due to unseasonal rains.

The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan in a letter to the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed about ministry’s decision to relax the FAQ norms.

The decision to relax FAQ norms came following the request of Dharmendra Pradhan, who had written to Paswan on January 30 in which he mentioned that farmers will be forced to go for distress sale of paddy if the FAQ norms are not relaxed by the Centre.

In this regard, a team of Food Corporation of India (FCI) officers had visited and assessed the paddy quality in the affected districts of Odisha.