| Incentive bonus for Ganjam farmers | |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Berhampur December 02, 2008, 0:04 IST | |
The farmers in Ganjam district will get an incentive bonus of Rs 50 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy fixed by the Central government during procurement this year.
The procurement process of paddy is scheduled to kick off from the first week of December this year. This was announced by VK Pandian, the district collector at the district procurement committee meeting held at Chhatrapur, the district headquarter town. The MSP of paddy for common and grade 'A' varieties was fixed at Rs 850 and Rs 880 per quintal respectively.
Last year, the incentive bonus was provided at Rs 100 per quintal over and above the MSP, when the government had fixed the MSP for common and grade A varieties at Rs 645 and Rs 675 per quintal respectively. The farmers of the district are unhappy over the reduction in incentive bonus this time. "While the government had not raised the MSP of paddy to Rs 1,000 per quintal which we had demanded earlier, it should provide a bonus of at least Rs 150 per quintal of paddy", said Simanchal Nahak, the convener of Rushikulya Rayat Mahasangh, a farmers organisation.
The government had fixed the procurement of rice at 1.93 lakh metric tonnes this year from the different agencies in the district as against the procurement of 1.64 lakh metric tonnes last year. The procurement would be done by the different agencies including the millers, Orissa State Civil Supply Corporation, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited Food Corporation of India Limited and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies.
This time, the district administration has decided to engage maximum woman self help groups (SHG) as commission agents to procure paddy from the farmers. "We have decided to engage at least one SHG to procure paddy and to hand over the same to an authorised agency on a commission basis”, the district collector said.
"It will help the farmers to sell their products at their door step, to reduce the transport costs and also help the SHGs to generate funds". Last year the district administration had fixed a commission of 1.5 per cent on the price of paddy for the SHGs.
This year, the commission is yet to be decided, said PDM Khosla, the district civil supply officer. The district administration has formed 176 market yards to procure paddy.
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