JEYPORE: Farmers from different paddy growing areas under Jeypore sub-division have expressed concern over the delayed opening of scheduled mandis for the rabi crop procurement as pre-monsoon rains gripped Koraput district.
Koraput administration had decided to start paddy procurement for the rabi season from May 25. The decision was made during a district-level procurement committee meeting chaired by collector V Keerthi Vasan on May 13. The committee decided to operate 73 marketing yards across the district to facilitate the procurement process.
It was also decided that the food supply and consumer welfare department will engage three pani panchayats, 13 large area multi-purpose cooperative societies (LAMPS), and 21 self help groups (SHGs) for the procurement. These agencies would set a target to procure 56,644 metric tonne of paddy from farmers at the mandis. Nearly 16,978 farmers had registered under different LAMPS to sell their rabi paddy in the district.
However, the mandis were not opened as scheduled on Sunday. This spread concern among the farming community in Jeypore, Kundra, Kotpad and Borigumma. Farmers informed they have already harvested about 20 to 30 per cent of their paddy and have no scope to sell their stock as mandis are yet to open in the areas. They also complained of facing difficulties in storing the harvested paddy in their houses due to bad weather conditions.
“The administration should have started mandi activities as scheduled since harvesting has been carried out by the farming community in several parts. It will be helpful for farmers if the administration buys the paddy grains and stocks them safely in RMC godowns,” said leader of Koraput Krushak Kalyan Manch, Narendra Pradhan.
Meanwhile, district civil supplies officials said the scheduled mandi opening on Sunday was deferred as crop-cutting is not yet complete in all the paddy chunks. “We recorded that paddy has been harvested only in some pockets and hence, we changed the schedule to start the mandi from June 5 in the district, considering ground realities. Besides, there is rainfall in the tribal region,” added Koraput district civil supplies officer P K Panda.