Even as the State Government has announced to compensate the farmers who suffered crop loss due to pest attack and unseasonal rains, several other farmers are left in lurch due to nonpayment of their dues by the Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) for seeds it procured from them.
While the OSSC is a State Government undertaking, its authorities are just not clearing the farmers’ dues since more than last seven months. This is happening repeatedly even when the OSSC is the principal seed purchasing agency of the Government.
According to sources, the farmers sold moong and black gram seeds worth Rs 9 crore to the OSSC in March 2017. While farmers have been approaching the OSSC authorities for payment of their dues, the latter have been citing funds crunch as the reason for nonpayment.
This is despite the fact that the State Government has created a Corpus Fund of Rs 100 crore to help the farmers. The OSSC has so far withdrawn only Rs 60 crore from this fund.
Secondly, while the Government has stood guarantee for loans worth Rs 40 crore, the OSSC is are dragging its feet to go for the loans even though banks have sanctioned the loans, said the sources. This has led to the funds crunch in the OSSC, resulting in unnecessary delay in payment of dues to the farmers.
The farmers allege that they are supposed to get the first instalment of their dues while supplying the seeds and the rest within a month of the seeds being cleared in the testing process.
Farmers allege that the delay in receiving their dues has hampered their preparations for the Rabi crop. Several others say that the loan they availed from banks for farming activities is also mounting on them.