Post News Network
Berhampur, Feb 7: Farmers in the district incur heavy losses this season as they are forced to resort to distress sale of paddy due to a number of chinks in the procurement system.
Thousands of farmers could not get the benefits of the government procurement system as most of them could not make it to on-line registration, alleged members of the district unit of the Orissa Chasi Suraksha Abhiyan at a meeting here Friday.
They said even though there are 4 lakh farmers in the district, only 60,000 got their names registered. The rest failed to register their names as they are not familiar with the new system.
That apart, several other systemic flaws forced them into distress sale, alleged convener Abhiyan Rabi Rath.
Even those farmers who registered their names cannot sell paddy at procurement centres as the officials decline to buy the produce from them on the plea of lack of storage facility. Moreover, officials prepare false records of procurement, Rath pointed out.
Taking advantage of the faulty system, middlemen and traders from others districts and even Andhra Pradesh buy paddy at prices much less than the minimum support price. Truckloads of paddy are being transported to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh every day.
Food and civil supplies minister Sanjay Kumar Das Burma and secretary Madhusudan Padhee had joined a review meeting on paddy procurement here recently. They had asked the authorities to ensure that farmers sell their produce at the procurement centres at MSP. Yet, nothing has happened on the ground, rued Rath.
Meanwhile, most of the farmers have migrated to other states as they found agriculture a loss-making proposition, he added.
The Abhiyan members have threatened to stage a demonstration outside the district civil supplies office if immediate measures are not taken to buy paddy from farmers and sharecroppers.