Non Resident Odia (NRO) Prof Digambara Patra of the American University of Beirut has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to demand a decentralised paddy procurement system from the Central Government where the State Government would directly purchase from the farmers in the State for the FCI to meet the PDS and food security requirements on its own instead of depending on a centralized system.
“Paddy farmers in Odisha are increasingly struggling to sell their produce in Mandis in the past couple of years. After carefully looking at the Central Government’s purchasing data from various States through FCI, I found that in the present centralised procurement system Punjab and Haryana are taking great advantage in paddy procurement undermining interest of States like Odisha,” he said in an open letter to the CM. He said in the last four years, the Central Government procured almost all non-Basmati rice of Punjab and Haryana that was consumed in other States. Interestingly, these two States are not a major consumer of rice and cultivate paddy substantially for commercial gain using the centralised procurement policy.
On the other hand, the procurement percentage of rice was lower in major rice consuming States like Odisha. Though compared to West Bengal, Bihar and UP, procurement of paddy/rice in Odisha and Chhattisgarh has substantially increased in the past 10 years, the Odisha farmers are presently still unable to sell all their paddy in Mandis, he told.
He cited the trend of distress sale of paddy all over Odisha after the targets are said to be met by the procurement agencies every crop season. “In the last Kharif season, privately farmers were told, particularly in Kalahandi, that the target was achieved for Government procurement. Thus, many farmers from Kalahandi were forced to sell paddy to private millers at less than 50 % of market price suffering a huge loss,” he told. Patra also said that the Central Government has purchased in last one year more paddy in Punjab and Haryana to minimize the anger of the farmers in the two States who have been continuing an agitation against the Modi Government. However, this is at the cost of a State like Odisha.
In the last year, procurement of paddy in Punjab increased substantially while in Odisha it decreased by 30 %, he said. Odisha’s farmers are suffering as their shares are taken by paddy farmers in Punjab. In such a case, a decentralised system would be ideal, said Prof Patra.
He also said this would reduce additional cost in transportation of rice from other States like Punjab to Odisha for PDS purposes, besides minimizing the environmental cost, like air pollution, due to fossil fuel consumption, during long distance transportation. Further, increase in procurement capacity will boost local millers and employment in Odisha, he said.