Bhawanipatna: With no procurement centre set up by the government to collect flax seeds (locally known as Alasi), tribal cultivators who live on the crop were found at the receiving end as they end up being exploited by middlemen, according to a report.
Thuamula Rampur block in Kalahandi district alone produces more than a thousand tonne of flax seeds a year.
While the farmers raise mustard in plain surfaces, flax seed is cultivated on hilltops, at foothills and near small streams. It is considered a cash crop and generally harvested at the beginning of winter season.
Tribal families clean unwanted growths in fields during the summer and leave them to decay in the rainy season. With this practice they manage to increase the soil fertility following which the farmers sow flax seeds. Long stretch of flax seed fields with a cover of yellowish flowers catch the attention of people traveling through the rocky countryside of this block.
Earlier, the Orissa Oil and Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Orissa Limited (TDCC) used to procure the seeds paying appropriate price to tribal cultivators. However, the government agencies have now stopped procuring the produce which has forced the tribals to sell the crops to unscrupulous traders and middlemen at throwaway prices.
It is learnt that poverty forces the farmers take advance from the brokers ahead of their festival and sell the produce after harvest as per the price fixed by the later.
Meanwhile, the farmers demanded a procurement centre for the produce so that they can get the right price for the efforts they put in to raise the crop. This would also encourage other farmers to take up flax seed farming and result in increase of production, they added.
The district administration should look into the matter immediately, said Western Orissa Development Council member Manikya Chandra Nayak and educationist Satyanarayan Mundchhina. PNN