Kundura: With the official market for selling of paddy yet to start in this block of Koraput district, farmers are apprehensive of what the future holds for them.
The official mandi was scheduled to start May 25. Keeping that in mind, farmers who have already harvested 70 per cent of their summer paddy have stored the crops at a temporary mandi here. But it doesn’t have proper covering. With monsoon fast approaching they fear that the paddy will be destroyed once the rains start.
Dangarpaunshi, Kundura, Khatalapadar, Digapur and Tarapat are some areas in Kundura block where mandis have been opened. For the last 20 years, it is the farmers that get the mandis cleaned and buy tarpaulin with money from their own pockets. There is the Regulated Market Committee, headed by the District Collector, to provide electricity, water, tarpaulin and other facilities to the farmers at the mandis. But then these facilities are rarely available.
Last summer, 1,33,187 quintals of paddy were procured from 1,743 farmers. The same amount is expected to be procured this season too. However, delay in opening the mandi has landed farmers in distress.
Cashing in on the situation, middlemen have appeared, and started buying paddy from these farmers paying anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 per quintal.
Last season, two millers of this district and some from Kalahandi district were permitted to procure paddy directly from the farmers. But instead of helping the farmers out, they are delaying procurement. The millers are waiting for the rains to arrive and damage the produce. Then they can offer lesser price to the farmers and make more profits.
Going by the usual practice, farmers earn profits by selling paddy produced in summer. But the administration should have bought the produce from them in time.
The administration instead of streamlining the system is compounding the situation for the farmers.
Farmers have already piled their paddies at Dangarpaunshi and Digapur temporary mandis. As the crops are yet to be lifted, the farmers have been in great distress for last four days owing to Nor’wester rains.
Loss to the farmers is inevitable if the administration or the district supply department does not show any promptness for procurement.
PNN