KENDRAPARA: Large number of farmers in the district are resorting to distress sale of paddy. Nalinikanta Sethi, a farmer of Marichapali village, said several farmers in his village harvested their paddy hastily fearing rains as predicted by Meteorological department. He said it is not possible for farmers like him to carry paddy in bags to the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) at Rajnagar, which is 15 km away from his village.
“Last week, I sold five quintals of paddy for Rs 6,000. I know that the Government has fixed the MSP for Fair Average Quality (FAQ) at Rs 1,750 per quintal. But, some rice traders came to our village and we sold our produce to them,” he said.
Sarat Chandra Behera, a farmer of Balarampur village, said the farmers are desperate to sell their paddy after the end of harvesting season. “It is not possible for us to wait in queue at the PACS at Bagada, so we sold our produce to some traders who had visited our village recently,” he said.
Partha Sarathi Behera, a farmer of Garadapur, said, “After harvesting paddy, a large number of farmers are compelled to sell their produce to meet the daily expenses at throwaway prices. But the authorities are not taking any steps to check distress sale. Some millers and rice businessmen are camping in the villages to purchase paddy from hapless farmers by paying them much less price than fixed by the authorities.”
Krusaka Sabha district unit president Umesh Chandra Singh said farmers of the district have harvested around 10 lakh quintal paddy. “They had planned to sell around seven lakh quintal of paddy. But since Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) had announced that it will procure only five lakh quintal paddy, the farmers have started selling their produce for much less than the MSP set for FAQ paddy by the Government,” he said.
Civil Supply Officer Rajanikanta Das said OSCSC had decided to procure more than the target if required. “We have entrusted 116 PACSs to procure paddy from farmers. After purchasing paddy from the farmers, the PACSs will hand it over to the 14 rice mills in the district. The millers will provide 3,45,000 quintals of rice to us,” he said.