Bhubaneswar, Apr 13: As the deadline date for online registration of farmers for Rabi paddy procurement is nearing slated to be Apr 10, the government is now having worries about a sharp slash in the number of registrations in some districts of the state. It’s reported that not a single farmer of Jajpur, Kandhamal, Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Nayagargh has registered for the online process whereas in Rayagada only two farmers have registered for the same. On the other hand, the state government has instructed the paddy procuring DAs to keep a track of the number of registrations in collaboration with the Civil Supplies Officers, ARCS, DRCS and with other officials in order to speed up the process and inculcate suitable remedial measures wherever possible. Bijay Kumar Prusty, Joint Secretary Food and Civil Supplies department stated that the procurement process will begin on May 1 and will continue for two months upto June end and the district Collector of each district has been directed to speed up the process.
Notably, last year, 1,89,000 farmers registered for paddy collection through PACS but in 2017, only 19,389 farmers of 19 districts have enrolled their names. However, the government is yet to finalize the rates of crops to be procured from an acre of land. It is also been reported that in some districts, farmers do not even know about this online process as the process has started last year only. Such is the case with Abdhut Dhurua and Durga Prasad Pradhan who are residents of Lakhanpur in Jharsuguda. They have given in lot of efforts this season to reap their produce but they have to forcibly sell the crops at low rates as they are unaware of the new facilities for procurement. They have stated to the media that the government is not ready to purchase Rabi paddy and so they need to sell it to local middlemen at low rates and hence incur losses. It is after so long that they have now being informed that Jharsuguda has also been included in the list of Rabi crop procurement districts and if there are any such facilities then they would ask the society boards to help them in selling their produce.
