Press Trust of India
Berhampur, Jan 1: Paddy procurement was affected in Ganjam district due to the ongoing unseasonal rain caused by the well marked low pressure formed over the Bay of Bengal.
“The paddy procurement process has been halted due to rains since Tuesday following the direction of the state government,” said district civil supplies officer Nilakantha Mohanty. The government has decided to stall the procurement process as the farmers and millers might face trouble during transport of stocks to procurement centres due to inclement weather.
The government has instructed the regulated marketing committees (RMCs) to supply polythene sheets to the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) to cover the paddy bags lying in the mandis (procurement centres), Mohanty said. “We have already supplied one polythene sheet to each PACS to cover the paddy stocks lying in the mandis,” said Pramod Kumar Panda, secretary of the Digapahandi RMC. There was, however, no instruction to supply polythene sheets to individual farmers to cover the paddy lying in their threshing yards after harvest, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the Rushikulya Rait Mahasabha, a farmers’ organisation, has demanded supply of polythene sheets to every farmer in the district to cover their produce.
“The harvested paddy lying in the yards for final processing will be damaged if it is not saved from the rains. The state government should supply polythene sheets to each farmer to save their produce,” said Simanchal Nahak, convener of the outfit.
There are chances of damage to harvested crops lying in the yards if the rain continues for two more days, deputy director of agriculture, Ganjam, Sudarshan Mohanty said. He further said there was no standing paddy crop as harvesting was over.
The rain would, however, help standing crops of pulses like green and black grams and ground nuts, the deputy director added.