BARGARH: Rabi procurement in Bargarh officially ended on Monday with thousands of quintals of paddy still lying at various mandis in the district.
Despite multiple protests and appeals by farmer organisations, large volumes of paddy stock are yet to be transported to mills, raising concerns over delayed payments and exposure to weather.
A target was set to purchase 62 lakh quintal of paddy from Bargarh during the procurement drive which began across 189 designated mandis in Attabira, Bargarh and Padmapur sub-divisions on May 14. While the administration claims to have achieved the target on paper, ground realities show a different picture, alleged farmers.
They claimed nearly two lakh quintal of paddy belonging to around 4,000 farmers are lying at different procurement centres in the district.
Member of Sanjukta Krushak Sangathan Ramesh Mahapatra said, “Due to our protests, procurement was expedited in the last few days. While many expected it to end at 52 lakh quintal, it crossed 62 lakh quintal. But that doesn’t mean the system has improved. Paddy has been procured from around 90,200 farmers. But nearly 800 farmers with valid tokens and about 60,000 quintal of paddy were left out.”
Farmers alleged that this season’s procurement was marred by irregularities from the beginning. These included issuance of fewer tokens than the area actually cultivated, arbitrary deductions of 2-3 kg per quintal from each lot, delays due to middlemen monopolising the mandis, and allegations of paddy being marked as procured using iris-scan authentication without the grain physically arriving amid fears of manipulation.
“To make matters worse, lifting of paddy is yet to be completed. Farmers only get paid when their produce reaches the mill. Hence, there is a sense of uncertainty,” Mahapatra added.
Sources said though tagging of farmers was completed on schedule, the lifting process reportedly suffered due to lack of cooperation from millers, poor storage infrastructure, labour shortage and unseasonal rains. Officials have also pointed to poor coordination between procurement agencies and rice mills as a key reason for the delay.
Civil supplies officer Bibhu Prasanna Acharya said, “The procurement process was marred largely due to unseasonal rainfall. But we were able to procure the targeted paddy within time. Due to the last-moment rush, paddy bags have not yet been transported to the mills. But the backlog will be cleared in two to three days.”