Bhubaneswar, Aug 10: AgriStack registration is currently not mandatory for farmers, ensuring that no farmer is deprived of selling their paddy, said an official today.

An Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting was held to ensure a smooth and transparent farmer registration process for the upcoming Kharif Paddy Procurement Season 2026-27.

Chaired by the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, the meeting was attended by Minister of Revenue and Disaster Management Suresh Pujari, Minister of Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Krushna Chandra Patra, Minister of Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Rabi Narayan Naik, and Minister of Cooperation Pradeep Bal Samanta. Additionally, Secretaries from the Cooperation, Agriculture, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, and Finance departments, along with the Managing Director of the State Civil Supplies Corporation, participated in the discussions.

According to the key decisions and deliberations, AgriStack registration is currently not mandatory for farmers, ensuring that no farmer is deprived of selling their paddy. The registration window remains open until October. AgriStack is an integrated farmer platform that consolidates farmer data, generating a unique Farmer ID upon registration to facilitate seamless access to government benefits. To date, around 6,00,000 farmers have registered on the platform.

Similarly, special guidelines are being formulated for sharecroppers, with the government working actively to resolve potential challenges.

A review of the 2025-26 Rabi season revealed that 20,46,185 metric tonnes of paddy were procured from 3,63,553 farmers—an increase compared to the 19,18,528 metric tonnes procured in the previous year (2024-25). As of today, ₹4,844 crore has been disbursed towards Minimum Support Price (MSP) and input assistance to 3,63,149 farmers for the Rabi season.

The committee has set a target to register at least 50% of farmers. To achieve this, the Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, and Cooperation departments will coordinate closely at the administrative level, supported by the Revenue Department. Registrations are currently being processed at nearest PACS, CSC centers.

To date, 94,657 farmers have already registered to sell paddy for Kharif 2026-27, with Balasore district recording the highest number of registrations. To prevent misinformation regarding registration and sale, awareness drives are being launched at the sub-division and Gram Panchayat levels. Village Agricultural Workers (VAWs) will assist farmers with their applications, and directives have been issued to ensure farmers receive a registration receipt upon applying. Now two types of registration slips are provided to the farmers. One with registration with Agristack & another without Agristack registration slip. Both are valid.