Despite record paddy output, farmers in Ganjam suffer

Large-scale irregularities in procurement process alleged

Despite record paddy production in the last Kharif season, farmers in Ganjam, the home district of Odisha Chief Minister, are suffering because of large-scale irregularities in the government's paddy procurement process, peasants’ organisations -- the Rushikulya Rayat Sabha (RRS) and the Odisha Chasi Surakshya Abhiyan (OCSA) -- have alleged.

According to these organisations, the 2016 Kharif paddy yield in Ganjam district is the highest in the past 20 years. “Data from the agriculture department shows that during this Kharif season, paddy production was around nine lakh tonnes.

But ironically, the government target is to procure three lakh tonnes from Ganjam district.

This means that the farmers are being compelled to sell the rest of their produce to dubious traders at lower rates,” said RRS secretary Simanchal Nahak.

The convener of OCSA, Rabi Rath, said the government should have taken into account the real state of production before fixing the target of paddy procurement. Mr. Nahak and Mr. Rath alleged that because of this, farmers of Ganjam district are not going to earn much from their paddy yield despite a bumper crop.

Irrigated land

As per government norms, 18 quintals of paddy is procured per acre of irrigated land and 12 quintals from an acre of non-irrigated land. “At several places in Ganjam district, farmers have resorted to use of SRI or other scientific methods of agriculture due to which their yield is 25 to 28 quintals per acre. Due to lack of proper machinery, the farmers are unable to sell off their paddy at good rates and at many places stored paddy has started to germinate,” said RRS president Trinath Biswal.

The peasants’ organisations calculate that farmers in Ganjam district are losing income worth more than ₹20 crore due to irregularities in paddy procurement. They claimed that there were around six lakh farmers in Ganjam district and of them three lakh are share croppers. But for paddy procurement, only one lakh farmers have been registered.

Share croppers

“It means most farmers, especially share croppers, have been left out of the paddy procurement process,” said Mr. Rath. As the government is yet to provide official recognition to share croppers, they are unable to sell their produce in government mandis, said Mr. Nahak.

Delay in opening of the paddy procurement mandis is also said to be a reason behind the distress sale by small and marginal farmers.