Paddy cultivation is the main calling of farmers in our state. Over 90 per cent of people engaged in farming in Orissa earn their livelihood from this crop.
Over the years, with expansion in irrigation infrastructure and arrival of better seeds and technology, the paddy output in Orissa has shown a quick uptick. Today, the state has become a consumer surplus state in paddy with its total procurement having more than tripled over last one-and-a-half decades.
It is more than a decade now since procurement in the state was decentralised. Earlier, Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for procurement and distribution of food stocks in the country, procured bulk of the consumable surplus paddy in the state either directly from farmers or through agencies that it appointed.
The whole exercise of engaging multiple players in procurement was meant to ensure that the benefits of minimum support price (MSP) are made available to maximum number of farmers in the country at minimum time.
To this end, the corporation engaged select private players such as NBHC and NCMSL, multi-state cooperative bodies such as NAFED and state-owned cooperatives such as STC and MARKFED to directly procure stocks from farmers.
The overriding aim was to ensure that farmers do not face difficulties or delays in sale of their stocks and receipt of MSP.
Later, the system was overhauled again and procurement was completely decentralised. It was in a way necessitated as FCI lost a bulk of its manpower and hardly any replacement took place.
The private players, who took part in the procurement programme under the direct monitoring of the state government and made direct payments to farmers through cheques at markets, were disallowed. The state government took upon itself the task of procurement, which it carries out through the Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC). Organisations such as NAFED, MARKFED, STC, and NACOF have also been allowed to procure paddy from farmers albeit their role is minimal.
All this has pushed FCI to the margin. The national corporation has now been reduced to just a subsidy-disbursing and monitoring agency.
The state government does the lion’s share of procurement, which currently stands at more than 50 lakh MT of paddy. In value terms, it is an exercise involving around `7,500 crore. The OSCSC has tied up with over a dozen commercial banks to bankroll its procurement programme.
The banks are under obligation to extend loans at most competitive rates to the corporation. The latter makes repayment of its loans with the funds it receives from the FCI. The cost-sheet of the FCI is so designed that the corporation invariably gets a windfall.
However, the way OSCSC is executing the procurement programme in the state it seems the paramount objective of the programme is not ensuring MSP to maximum number of farmers at minimum possible time, but lining the pockets of the stakeholders such as rice millers, officials of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), among others.
Early this week reports came that farmers in Mayurbhanj district, most of whom are tribals, are being put to lots of hardship. Even as the Makar Sankranti is round the corner, farmers in some pockets of the district are broke as they are unable to sell their paddy. Many have to face distress sale as the government has not yet started paddy procurement in these areas.
However, what has come as a pure shocker is that heads of large-sized agricultural multi-purpose cooperative societies (LAMPS) have been asked to procure paddy from those farmers who have registered online for purchase of 50 quintals of paddy in January.
Paddy of those farmers who have registered for over 50 quintals will be procured in February, while those wishing to sell over 100 quintals or more will get the MSP benefits in March. Such rules are arbitrary and militate against the very philosophy of MSP.
Farmers should not be penalised for producing more and thus wanting to sell more paddy at MSP. There is no reason why farmers with larger stocks should be made to wait for two months to sell paddy.
As it is the state government has put in place a number of restrictions on farmers to ensure that they sell only a given portion of their total produce. The paddy quota for sale for every farmer is arrived at based on his or her size of the land holding and whether the land is irrigated or not. On top of this, forcing farmers to discriminatory practices when it comes to distribution of MSP is unlawful.
