Chhatrapur: Even as the last date for paddy purchase by the state government came to an end February 28, about 57,000 farmers in Ganjam district have been left out of the process, a report said.
The matter came to the fore when a farmer’s outfit Rushikulya Ryot Mahasabha met the District Supply Officer (DSO) Bishnu Prasad Supkar and submitted a memorandum to him addressed to the collector Saturday.
In the memorandum, the Mahasabha members demanded to extend the paddy purchase period in the Ganjam district to March 31 as over 57,000 farmers are yet to sell their stocks.
The outfit’s secretary Simanchal Nahak submitted the memorandum to the DSO, stressing that the left-out farmers will be forced to go for distress sale if the paddy purchase process does not start again.
Accepting the memorandum, Supkar said a report has been sought on the status of paddy purchase in the district from the primary agricultural services cooperative societies. He said after purchasing the paddy from the farmers till February 28, the process had been stopped from March 1. It was done as per existing provisions in law after a period of 90 days of paddy purchase.
The farmers’ outfit said that many farmers are yet to sell their paddy stocks and have been left out of the process. Last year, the procurement continued till April 30, they said.
This year over 1.30 lakh farmers had registered their names online to sell their produce. But the administration was able to purchase paddy from 73,000 farmers only, leaving out 57,000 in the process.
PNN