PARADIP: The Krushak Sathis, farmers’ friends, in Jagatsinghpur are leading a pathetic life. Poor pay structure and apathy of the Agriculture Department towards their long-pending demands have made them acutely poor.
Protesting, the sathis staged an agitation in front of the office of Deputy Director, Agriculture, on Monday.
Introduced in each panchayat in 2005-06, the Krushak Sathi School is aimed at sorting out agriculture-related problems of the farmers.
The Agriculture Department had engaged Krushak Sathis in each panchayat to help farmers with ideas of saving their crop and boosting production.
Their role, however, changed soon after training as they now have to double up as village-level agriculture workers (VAWs) in the absence of VAWs.
Primarily their job includes soil testing, e-waste management and crop development works. The Government also paid them
` 4,000 per annum as an incentive and also fixed ` 20 for testing of sample soil at the panchayat level.
District unit president of Odisha Krushak Sathi Mahasang Ratiranjan Das said their demands had been pending for over two years. Nearly 6,234 sathis are leading a hand-to-mouth existence but no steps have yet been taken for their improvement, he added.
They have been demanding a pay of Rs 6,000 per month, employment of highly educated sathis as VAWs and training in latest technology on agriculture. They have submitted their demands to the Deputy Director, Agriculture, Jagastinghpur.