Nuapada: Even as many farmers in Nuapada district spend sleepless nights in chilling winter to guard their produce at different paddy mandis, farmers who have already sold out their kharif paddy still await payments of over Rs 10 crore.
According to sources, over 60,000 sacks of paddy still lie unsold at seven mandis across Nuapada district. Kharif paddy procurement which is going on here for over past one and half months has created a stalemate, allegedly due to severe irregularities in the process.
In a situation, where genuine and registered farmers have failed to sell their kharif produce so far, under the plea of ‘katni-chhatni’ and predominance of millers, this has sparked resentment among farmers and local farmers have warned of agitations.
However, the state civil supplies department has been striving to make the entire process of kharif paddy procurement transparent. It was earlier announced by the state government to make timely and systematic payment of minimum support price (MSP) to farmers.
A total of 22,323 farmers had registered online in Nuapada district this season. It was decided to procure kharif paddy from the registered farmers through 56 different mandis of primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) including 13 self-help groups (SHGs) of the district, where paddy procurement is still going on.
Millers purchase paddy from the farmers with ‘katni-chhatni’ of three to four kg per quintal. The millers do not come to the mandis in time and farmers are left in the receiving end.
Departmental officials seem to have no control over mandis in the district and no test for fair average quality (FAQ) of paddy is actually conducted here if a farmer agrees to ‘katni-chhatni’, they alleged.
Notably, 6,49,261 quintals of kharif paddy has been procured from 10,529 farmers in Nuapada out of which 814 farmers have not yet received their payments amounting to Rs 10,05,86,701. However, arrangement for an early disbursal of the payments to farmers is being made, cooperation department sources said.