ROURKELA: As farmers continue to struggle with delay in paddy procurement largely due to shortage of storage sheds at the paddy procurement centres (PPC), Sundargarh administration has initiated measures to set up new godowns and address the issue.
Sources said, with rice mills not lifting paddy in time, farmers are the ultimate sufferers. As PPCs face storage problems, they do not buy paddy from farmers till vehicles are provided by rice mills. As a result, farmers wait outside the mandis for days together with paddy stock in open at personal risk due to the inclement weather.
On the other hand, due to procurement delay, many farmers are getting excluded from the procurement process with lapsing of their sale tokens which have one month validity. But under the current system, there is no remedy available for farmers if the PPCs concerned fail to purchase from them, for reasons beyond their control.
As per reports, 13 rice mills of the district are authorised to purchase paddy from 135 PPCs. To speed up the procurement, 10 more rice mills of neighbouring district have recently been tagged to these PPCs.
But the woes of farmers are far from over. For instance, Ujjalpur LAMPCS (Large And Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies) in Sadar block has halted procurement with millers not turning up, while tokens of 16 farmers have lapsed and 200 more tokens may lapse in next couple of days.
Admitting to the storage problems, Sundargarh Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies (DRCS) Rashmilata Behera shared that five godowns of 500 tonne capacity each, have been made functional at different market yards.
Six new godowns adjacent to as many LAMPCS have come up with contribution from the District Mineral Foundation, while seven other under-construction godowns would be ready before the next procurement season, she said.
"Ideally, all 44 LAMPCSs in the district should have own godowns. Either land has been identified or proposals sent to the government for setting up another 25 godowns of 500 tonne capacity each. It would take more than two years to fully overcome the storage problem," the DRCS added.