Protesting against the dillydallying of officials, farmers in Sambalpur on Monday stacked around 30 quintals of potato at the office of the Deputy Director of Horticulture and prevented the entry of staff into the office. The farmers dumped their produce after the district Collector and the Director of Horticulture failed to fulfil their promises of procuring potato in two days.
As the potato was perishing due to intense heat wave in the district, farmers of Jamankira, led by secretary of Sri laxmi Krushak Sangathan, Gokul Chamdra Dani, forced their way into the office and dumped the potato sacks in the office in the absence of the officials. later in the afternoon, Sub-Collector Bimalendu Ray and CSO Bijay Rath reached the spot and held talks with the aggrieved farmers. The officials assured the farmers that potato would be procured at Jamankira and Kuchinda in next two days.
Of the 30 quintals of potato dumped, a sack containing 50 kg was purchased by the Sub-Collector, 27 quintals was purchased for the Aahar scheme and the remaining stock was bought by the people present there at Rs 7 a kilo. The State Government had encouraged farmers to grow potato after the West Bengal Government stopped supply to Odisha last year. Farmers in Sambalpur district had cultivated potato on over 1,800 hectares of land and produced around 27,000 quintals.
The Government was procuring the produce in the district through government agencies. However, farmers suffered a jolt as not a kilo gram of potato was collected from the district before the procurement period was over. It may be recalled that farmers from Ambabhona block of the neighbouring Bargarh district had also dumped potato at the Collector’s office on April 10 demanding procurement of their produce. The potato was procured following intervention of the district administration.
Earlier on March 24, the Government had announced to procure potato from 11 districts through two procurement agencies, the Markfed and the Udyan Fresh, which in turn were to be purchased by the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation to be stored as buffer stock to meet the demands during lean period.