ROURKELA: The large and multi-purpose cooperative societies (LAMPS) across the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district are witnessing a mad rush as farmers are in a hurry to inform the status of crop harvesting to get centralised tokens for paddy procurement.
Under the new system, registered farmers are required to submit in writing if their crops are ready for sale. The LAMPS then forwards this information to the State Government for issue of centralised tokens to farmers. Once the token is issued, an SMS is sent to the mobile phone of farmer asking him to appear on a specific date with paddy for sale.
This information is also shared with LAMPS and Civil Supplies Office. Bonai Krushak Sangh president Dambrudhar Kishan said farmers are flocking to the local LAMPS to submit data about their crops. However, since farmers are not acquainted with the new system and Bonai LAMPS officials are unable to handle the situation properly, a chaotic situation prevails, he claimed. Similar situation prevailed in rest of the LAMPS in the district.
While harvesting of paddy crops is still underway and likely to stretch beyond December, farmers are anxious as they may not be able to sell their crops if they fail to get tokens early. The most worried are farmers who have harvested crops on the upland.On the other hand, many instances of paddy getting rejected for moisture content beyond permissible limits have surfaced in the district.
Managing director of Kuanrmunda LAMPS Ranjit Lakra said in some places of Nuagaon block, paddy was rejected due to excess moisture content. He said farmers of Kuanrmunda block are not turning up at the LAMPS office despite reminders fearing rejection. The farmers are seeking more time to dry the paddy crops properly.
Meanwhile, paddy procurement in the district is slowly picking up pace. Sundargarh Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies Jerome Kerketta informed that from Wednesday, procurement started at Bargaon, Birbira, Majhapara, Nuagaon and few other LAMPS.
He said that no registered farmers would be left out of the procurement process. Once the new system gets fully streamlined, it would benefit the farmers, Kerketta added.The district has sent details of 37,952 registered farmers to the Government. In the first phase, 1.18 lakh tonne of paddy would be procured.
1.41 lakh paddy bags procured
SAMBALPUR: As many as 1,41,881 bags of paddy weighing 59,590.02 quintal were procured from 945 farmers of the district on Wednesday. So far, 9,16,204 bags of paddy weighing 3,84,805.68 quintal have been purchased from 5,832 farmers in the ensuing kharif season.
While paddy procurement in Sambalpur Sadar sub-division began on November 21, the process in Kuchinda and Rairakhol started on December 2. During the last kharif season, 8,29,297 bags of paddy weighing 3,48,304.74 quintal were procured from 4,897 farmers till December 4.