Ahmad, a farmer, owns five acres of land at Gangojipet and this season, he took another six acres on lease and cultivated paddy. He had high expectation in view of good harvest, which now lie shattered.
He had hoped to sell his crop at Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) procurement centre at Shivampet, seven km from this village. To his misfortune, the IKP procurement centre did not have adequate gunny bags. Not only would he have to wait to get them, but also has to pay for transporting his produce to Shivampet.
Ahmad, who had paid ₹14,000 per acre for the six acres leased land, took the easy way out and sold his entire produce to a merchant from the district headquarters who offered only ₹1,460 per quintal as against ₹1,590 offered by the IKP. The merchant was not only willing to lift the produce from the farm, but also paid Ahmad in cash. “We do not know when the gunny bags would arrive and when we will be in a position to transport paddy to IKP centre. We feel that this is a better bargain as the money will be paid immediately and we will be relieved from protecting the produce from vagaries of nature like sudden rain,” Ahmad told The Hindu . Some farmers claimed that more than 70% of the farmers had already sold their produce to traders for a lower price. At several places the paddy that was stockpiled on the road side in bags covered with tarpaulin covers can be seen on Singoor road from Tad-Danpally.
Few km away at the IKP Centre at Isojipet, huge stock of paddy was piled up due to lack of transport. “The drivers are not accepting to carry more than 500 bags per lorry whereas a 10-tyre lorry can carry a load of 600 bags and 12-tyre lorry can carry 900 bags,” said an IKP worker on condition of anonymity. “Our repeated appeals failed to convince the officials to send more number of lorries. Without lorries and gunny bags, how can the stock be shifted?” asked Minpur Mallaiah, a farmer, stating that many farmers have held their paddy at home or farm waiting to clear it at the earliest to avoid the impact of sudden rain.
