The State Government seems to be in a quandary as to whether it would be able to procure the targeted quantities of paddy, which has increased to 48 lakh metric tonne after a hike in certain districts.
After the paddy procurement ceiling increased in districts like Bargarh, Sambalpur, Balangir, Subarnapur, Kalahandi, and Malkangiri, the target has been increased from 44.46 lakh MT to nearly 48 lakh MT.However, farmers are still demanding hike in the paddy procurement limit and staging protests for the purpose. Opposition parties — the Congress and the BJP — have also come to their support.
“In the wake of protests, the State Government has already increased the average ceiling from 12 to 14 kg per acre for non-irrigated land and 18 to 20 per acre for irrigated land. With this, the paddy procurement target will increase from 44.46 lakh MT to about 48 lakh MT. If we allow paddy procurement indiscriminately, it may create storage as well as milling crisis in the State,” said Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi.
The Kharif Marketing Season 2014-15 that commenced on October 1 has introduced Farmers’ Registration System (FRS), which involves supply of procurement calendar to farmers, preparation of database of their cultivable land and registration of bank accounts.
Sources said, the system has developed problems in the beginning as land records and bank accounts provided by farmers could not be digitised properly without proper verification.As a result, many farmers’ accounts were blocked, thus restricting them from taking part in paddy procurement process.