BERHAMPUR: The administration has requested the State government to consider extension of token validity and speeding up of the paddy procurement process following repeated demands by various farmers’ organisations in the district. Forwarding the concerns regarding relaxation of procurement norms and purchase of paddy from all registered farmers and share-croppers, Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange wrote to the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department on January 10 and sought consideration of the issues.
While paddy procurement started in the district on December 29, farmers have alleged that many mandis have not started functioning. Voicing resentment, secretary of Rushikulya Rayat Mahasabha (RRM) Simanchal Nahak claimed that only 6,700 of 1,22,800 registered farmers have been able to sell their paddy till now as many mandis are yet to open. Besides, the validity of tokens is for a month and will lapse by the end of January. To add to it, untimely rains during last week have held up the harvesting process while damaging paddy in some areas. The entire process needs extra time and the token validity should be extended upto March 31, Nahak pleaded in his appeal to the Collector recently.
He also sought relaxation of procurement norms as quality of paddy soaked in rainwater will not match the Fair Average Quality (FAQ) standards and if not sold, will cause huge losses to farmers affected.
Other organisations like Maa Kali Krushak Sangha (MKKS) and Dakhinachal Krushak Sangathan (DKS) have decried the delay in compensation to farmers who suffered crop loss due to untimely rains in November and December. Rabindra Satpathy of MKKS said, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced a special package of Rs 507 crore for the crop loss of which around Rs 69 crore was released to Ganjam, but till date no farmer in the district received the compensation. “Leave aside the compensation, even assessment of crop loss has not yet been completed in many remote pockets,” he said. Similarly, Jauri Jena of DKS expressed his discontentment at the compensation and said the announced amount is negligible as it comes down to Rs 6,800 per hectare against an investment of Rs 20,000.
However, none from the district administration was available for comment.