Low pressure rains hit paddy procurement

Unseasonal rains affected paddy procurement in several districts of the state with farmers struggling to save the paddy by covering it with tarpaulin and polythene sheets.

"The paddy procurement has been halted for three days from Tuesday following the direction of the government", said a senior civil supplies officer. The government has decided to stall the procurement process as the farmers and millers might face trouble during the transport of grains from the mandis due to the rain, said district civil supplies officer of Ganjam, Nilakantha Mohanty. The paddy procurement process was likely to resume from January 2, he said. The government has also instructed the regulated marketing committees (RMC) to supply polythene sheets to the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) to cover the paddy bags lying in the mandis. Most of the procurement is done though the PACS. "We have already supplied one polythene sheet to each PAC", said Pramod Kumar Panda, secretary, RMC-Digapahandi.

He, however, said there was no provision to supply the polythene sheets to individual farmers to cover up their products lying in the threshing yards after crop cutting.

Several farmers' organizations demanded supply of polythene sheets to every farmer to cover their products. "The harvested paddy lying in the yards for final processing will be damaged if these are not be saved from the rain. The government need to supply polythene sheets to each farmer to save their products", said Simanchal Nahak, convener of Rushikulya Raita Mahasabha, a farmer's organization.