Cotton crop in parts of Subarnapur district is almost ready for harvesting while in some pockets there might be crop loss owing to the likely rains and adverse weather condition in next few days.
The farmers here are a worried lot. In absence of an organized market for sale of their produce, they are left at the mercy of a spinning mill owner in Sonepur and middlemen.
Since Kolkata based mill owner procures cotton at less than market price, the farmers have to travel to a cotton market in the neighboring Balangir. This year, cotton has been grown over 3,000 hectares of land in Birmaharajpur, Ulunda and Tarbha blocks of Subarnapur.
But the district administration has made no effort to rope in agencies for procurement or opening of Mandis. While a decision was taken to open Mandis two years back, there has been no headway in the direction. This has exposed the growers to middlemen, who are on the prowl to purchase cotton at low price.
Although in a meeting of the District Level Monitoring Committee for Cotton, presided over by Subarnapur Collector Dasirathi Satpathy held in October last year, it was decided that a cotton Mandi would function under the Regulated Market Committee(RMC) at Birmaharajpur, work on the structure and its godown is far from complete. Only after its completion, the RMC can invite the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to open procurement centre at the Mandi.
Earlier, due to intervention of former Collector Bhabani Shankar Panda, the spinning mill was procuring cotton at market rate and the purchase amount was directly deposited in the account of the farmers.
The arrangement was in place for three years till Panda retired in March this year. The farmers alleged that now the spinning mill owner is dictating terms as far as procurement is concerned and they are forced to travel all the way to Balangir to sell cotton at a Mandi there. They said if the old system is put back in place, the procurement problem would be resolved.
The officials, however, said steps are being taken to streamline the procurement system and a godown will be constructed at Badkhamar village. Once the construction is complete, the RMC would move the CCI for procurement of cotton, they added.