KENDRAPARA: Farmers blocked the Kendrapara-Chandabali road at Tarasa in Rajkanika block on Saturday demanding procurement of their unsold paddy under the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government.
The agitators alleged that government agencies have failed to procure paddy from a large number of farmers. Many primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) are reluctant to purchase paddy even from farmers who received tokens. Adding to the woes, tokens of many farmers have lapsed and the civil supplies officials are not renewing those, they claimed.
Krupasindhu Biswal, a farmer of Taras village, said, “I came to the nearby PACS to sell 10 quintal paddy but the officials refused to procure my produce. Like me, many farmers will be now forced to sell paddy at a much lower rate than the market price this season.”
Ashok Jena of Garadapur village said he sold three quintal of paddy for Rs 4,500 last week. “I know the government has fixed Rs 1,940 as the price of a quintal of fair average quality (FAQ) paddy. But some rice businessmen came to our village and I sold them my paddy as the local PACS was not procuring my produce,” he said.
President of the district unit of Krushak Sabha Umesh Chandra Singh said a large number of farmers are being made to wait in front of societies with their produce. As a result, they are forced to resort to distress sale of paddy, leading to huge financial losses.
Later in the day, Rajkanika tehsildar Premananda Biswal rushed to the protest site and assured the agitating farmers of taking up the matter with the government.
District civil supplies officer (CSO) Prasant Kumar Gantayat said many farmers have harvested low-quality paddy crops due to the untimely rain during the harvesting season in December last year. As a result, some societies are not interested to purchase low-quality paddy.
“We have already procured 9.25 lakh quintal paddy from 24,800 registered farmers in the district through 118 PACS and the target has been fulfilled. “However, we will procure another 20,000 quintal paddy from farmers soon,” Gantayat added.