Paddy procurement for the Kharif season 2015-16 in Nuapada district came to an end on January15, but thousands of farmers who have sold their paddy to the Government through PACS are still awaiting their payment.
“There is immense delay in transfer of payment to farmers. I gave my paddy to the Cooperative Society of Khariar on January 13, but payment is yet to be made to me,” says Sanjay Tiwari, a farmer of Bargaon village of Khariar block.
Achievement in procurement of paddy was 98 per cent against the set target of 7.94 lakh quintals. The district had a procurement target of 7,94,117 quintals and the achievement was 7,79,450 quintals. In terms of rice, the amount will be 54,000 MT. Over 92 per cent (36,406 quintals) of the total procurement was done by the PACS and the rest by the Markfed.
The district unit of the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) was the nodal agency for coordinating the procurement processes. However, the transfer of payment to the bank accounts of the farmers is coordinated by the District Registrar of Cooperative Societies (DRCS).
“The present delay is due to lack of fund with DRCS. “They need an additional amount of Rs 5 crore to clear the payments of farmers which has been requisitioned,” said the Nuapada CSO.
Although the OSCSC claims that there was no delay or disturbance in procurement; the farmers have resentments. “Harvesting of medium variety of paddy in the district started in the last week of September, but the procurement started on December 18, and by that time, most farmers having medium lands had already sold their paddy to middlemen,” says Tiwari.
“More than 40 per cent of the procurement is from middlemen,” says Tiwari, further adding that the paddy purchased by the millers directly from the farmers and middlemen are adjusted against the farmers who had no surplus to sell due to loss of crops due to drought. The farmers are paid a certain amount for hiring out their cards to the millers.
The custom milling responsibility of paddy was allotted to 27 millers of the district. The cooperative societies have received 36,406.14 quintals of rice and the Markfed has received 1888.50 quintals till now.