Aradi: While the government is yet to open paddy procurement centres, farmers in Aradi and other parts of Bhadrak district face a lot of problems in selling their produce.
Many of them do not want to wait for government procurement and are in a hurry to sell their produce to traders at throwaway prices. According to reports, paddy plants are still left in rain-soaked farmlands while farmers find it difficult to harvest paddy in the wet grounds which are not suitable for harvesting machines. On top of it, farmhands are scarce in the district, making things all the more difficult for farmers.
A very few farmhands are available, but they demand `400 to `500 per day as wage which the poor farmers find unaffordable.
To meet their expenses, many farmers have resorted to distress sale of paddy. Distress sale has been reported from many villages in Aradi, Nandapur, Sundarpur, Olaga, Palasahi, Raipur and Tihidi gram panchayats.
This year, farmers had expected a bumper harvest, but pest attacks followed by unseasonal rain dashed their hopes. Still 60 per cent of ripe paddy is left in farmlands in Aradi. Locals said procurement through cooperative societies has not yet begun. “We have to sell paddy for `1,200 per quintal or even less than that. Had the government paid compensation for the crop loss, we would not have sold our produce so quickly and that too at throwaway prices,” said some farmers. Revenue inspector of Aradi, Debasish Ray said farmers will get compensation on the basis of the damage assessment report.
Traders make hay
Raisuan: Even as the government’s paddy procurement
exercise has reportedly turned out to be a farce in this tribal-dominated block in Keonjhar district, traders are cashing in on the
situation with poor farmers desperately selling their produce.
Middlemen and traders are
reportedly purchasing paddy at prices much less than the
government-fixed minimum support price (MSP).
According to a report, while the government has fixed `1,550 as price for procuring one quintal of paddy, traders are reportedly paying as little as `1,250 per quintal.
In fact, the hapless farmers are being forced to go for distress sale to meet their urgent expenses as well as repay their loans.
On the other hand, the administration does not seem to be keen on paddy procurement, according to farmers. “In such a situation we are compelled to sell our produce at throwaway prices,” some farmers said.
They urged the administration to take immediate steps for procurement of paddy from farmers and stop the distress sale.
The administration has set a target to procure 7.73 lakh quintals of paddy in the current kharif season in the district.
But procurement at various centres has not been up to the mark, leading to resentment among farmers, it was learnt.
PNN