The members in the State Assembly on Monday expressed concern over the failure of ground nut crop in the State due to supply of substandard seeds and demanded adequate compensation to the farmers.
The ruling BJD members, who were vocal over the issue, demanded the Speaker to constitute a House committee to inquire into the matter, displaying bundles of ground nut plants having no nuts.
Raising the issue during the Zero hour, Amar Prasad Satapathy of BJD said that this year the ground nut crop had failed totally in Jajpur. The farmers of the district had suffered the most. Due to the supply of low quality seeds by the Government agencies, there has been virtually no yield. Though there has been luxuriant growth of the ground nut plants, only one or two ground nuts were found in a plant. The Agriculture Department should send a team of experts to Badachana, Bari and Dharmasala blocks for an on-the-spot study and find out the reasons. Besides, the Government must provide compensation to the farmers towards the crop loss, he said.
BJD member Pranab Prakash Das demanded the Speaker to constitute a House committee for a spot inquiry into the problem. He stated that 16 gram panchayats of his constituency had been affected due to the low quality seeds.
Ruling party member Samir Ranjan Das said ground nut crop failed in thousands of acres of land in his constituency on both sides of the river Bhargavi and urged the Speaker to direct the Agriculture Minister to make a statement in the House.
BJD law maker Ranedra Pratap Swain also pointed to the failure of the ground nut crop in Athagarh. He urged the Speaker to send an expert committee to the area for an on -the- spot inquiry to find out the reason for the crop failure and demanded the Government to compensate the farmers. He and his party colleague Amar Prasad Satapathy also showed bundles of groundnut plants.
BJP floor leader KV Singh Deo said providing fake seeds in the name of quality seeds has been a habit by the Government. The fake seeds are not limited to ground nut alone, even the banana farmers who adopted tissue culture system suffered as the trees bore no fruit, he lamented.
The BJP leader demanded the Agriculture Minister to give a statement in the House on the failure of ground nut and banana crop and specify what steps the Government was taking to provide compensation to the affected farmers. He regretted that that it happened when the Government presented a special Budget for agriculture. Debi Prasad Chand of the Congress also said that the State Government had no concern for farmers in the wake of the failure of the ground nut crop.