Cuttack: In a bid to ensure transparency in paddy procurement, the state government is mulling introduction of iris recognition for farmers while selling the harvest at paddy procurement centres.
According to sources, all paddy procurement centres (mandis) will be provided with iris scanners by the beginning of this kharif procurement season.
“Farmers will be enrolled for the iris-scanning wherein the central server will store pictures of their unique iris. A farmer visiting the paddy procurement centre needs to stand in front of the scanner and have his/her eye photographed. The system would then quickly process the image and extract the required data after comparing the image with the ones stored in the server’s database,” said a source.
Iris scanning, coupled with Aadhaar details, will certainly go a long way to ensure that only genuine farmers sell paddy at the procurement centres and get benefits from the state government, Cuttack district assistant Supplies officer Gyanendriya Mishra said in a workshop on paddy procurement organised at the Collector’s conference hall here, Thursday.
According to sources, the district has around 204 primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS). As many as 50,620 farmers have registered themselves this year. Around 12 lakh quintal of paddy was procured during the last khafif season, while the authorities have aimed to collect more this procurement season.
Soon after the procurement, the centres will hand over the paddy to the millers on the same day. Besides, farmers will receive the money (Rs 1,815 per quintal) within 48 hours of giving the paddy at the procurement centres, Mishra said.
Sources said state’s numerous efforts to benefit the farmers are yet to bear the fruit as farmers have been facing the distress sale almost every year.
“Farmers had to borrow money from local lenders to ensure on-time showing of seeds. In order to repay the loan, they (farmers) choose to sell the harvest to the lenders instead of approaching the procurement centres,” said a source.
Requesting anonymity, a farmer from Tangi alleged that the officials at procurement centres exhibit step-motherly attitude towards them.
“They (officials) prioritise professional sellers at the centre over farmers. Hence, farmers had to wait for hours and even days to dispose the harvest. With no option in sight, they (farmers) prefer selling the harvest to professional sellers rather waiting in serpentine queues at the procurement centres,” the farmer added.
Civil Supplies Corporation manager Ashok Kumar Panda, Supplies officer Deepak Behera, Quality Analyst Ganesh Pani and district Supplies officer Amar Mohapatra attended the workshop.