Patrapur: Farmers in Ganjam district alleged that even though online registration of farmers for sale of surplus paddy to procurement agencies is in its last phase, about 60% of farmers couldn’t register their names with the state procurement agencies.
Farmers have threatened to launch protests under the aegis of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS), if the issue is not resolved at the earliest.
Sources said before three years, two cooperative societies PACS and LAMPS appointed by food supplies and consumer welfare department for procurement of paddy from farmers of the district through online registration process.
As per old rules, registered farmers were doing their renewal and the remaining could do their new registrations in online portals of PACs and LAMPS.
But in August, 2019, the department launches a new rule and instructed cooperative societies to start fresh registration by removing the names of already registered farmers.
Unaware of the new rule, only 40% farmers of the district registered their names in the Food Odisha Portal of the state government.
The time limit was too short for the officials of cooperative societies to register all the names of farmers with their land details as the state government will start paddy procurement from November.
On the other hand, officials were pressurized by their higher authorities to do online registration of farmers on a war footing. The authorities of the co-operative societies had not informed the farmers about the new rules. As a result, about 60% of farmers were left in the district without registeration of their names.
The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department had directed all Collectors to give emphasis on enrolment of new farmers such as sharecroppers, marginal and small farmers, and members of the joint liability groups involved in farming. The objective is to ensure minimum support price (MSP) to farmers for the paddy they sell to the government-appointed procuring agencies.
The district administrator has planned to enhance the number of registered farmers by 33 per cent over the last year.
But the recent registration status said, this year only five quintals of paddy will be purchased by the district administration instead of 50 quintals.
On the other hand, owing to the delay in paddy procurement process farmers will be forced to go for distress sale. They will sell their crops at a lower price to farmers and middlemen of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in future due to ignorance of cooperative societies.
PNN