Odisha should abide by its promise to farmers

The hype and brouhaha over Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s KALIA scheme has drowned a burning issue affecting the farmers of the state. Unable to offload their paddy yield through the government’s procurement system, they now stand as vulnerable to exploitative market conditions and non-realisation of minimum support price (MSP) as before. Across the state, stacks of non-procured paddy are lying in mandis as lapses, delays and irregularities have shrouded the procurement process this season. Farmers are resorting to agitations at various places to protest the gross mismanagement in the procurement process and irregularities in the mandis. They suspect the activities of millers, who are alleged to have delayed the lifting of stocks due to ulterior motives. 

If this was not enough, the government has suddenly gone ahead and announced the closure of paddy procurement operations from February-end, two months before the stipulated date of April 30. It has taken into consideration the plea of achieving marketable surplus paddy, surpassing last year’s achievement by over 45 per cent, and to prevent recycling by millers. But it seems to have forgotten its own proclamation in the food policy for the 2018-19 Kharif marketing season that there would be no bar on procurement if more paddy comes to the mandis. Though a target of procuring 55 lakh tonnes of paddy was announced, it was not binding.

Putting an end to procurement at a time when a substantial quantity of paddy is still to be lifted at the mandis is questionable. The farmers will now be at the mercy of private traders and rice millers and forced to sell their paddy at prices much below the MSP. While the procurement mess will no doubt give a fresh impetus to the political blame game over farmers, the government should abide by its own commitments by ensuring that the produce is procured. Besides, the lack of storage facilities at procurement centres as well as at mills is what is hurting farmers the most. If the issue is addressed sincerely, it will resolve a whole lot of problems—both for farmers and the government.