No Mandi, Nuapada farmers’ paddy lost in rain Monday, 24 May 2021 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPAD
No Mandi, Nuapada farmers’ paddy lost in rain
Kalicharan Dash of Tukla village in Nuapada district wants a paddy procurement centre (Mandi) to open as soon as possible. His 336 bags of paddy harvested from seven acres of land this Rabi season are lying in the open in the threshing field.
"I have already incurred loss of about 60 bags (30 quintals) of paddy due to the untimely rain. The weather still looks uncertain. If it rains further, I would be ruined," says Kali. Saroj Dash of the same village is a progressive farmer who applies all available new technologies in his farming. "I spend more in technology and get higher yield than others. But there is no way getting respite from the untimely rain, I lost more than 20 quintals paddy due to rain," says he. Ramkara Podh, who is a marginal farmer of this village, has no irrigation facility in his own land. So, he had taken two acres of irrigated land from another farmer for sharecropping. "Normally, I get 80 to 90 bags of paddy from this land, but I got only 35 bags as the yield was damaged by rain," says Podh.
There are many such farmers in Tukla panchayat who complain of loss due to rain last week. A rough calculation by these farmers reveals that above 150 acres of land had been cultivated during the current Rabi season in the panchayat and the total loss of paddy due to rain would be above 800 quintals. Some farmers like Kali Dash have also incurred complete loss in onion cultivation.
Paresh Dash, a farmer of the neighbouring Rishigaon panchayat too complains of huge loss in paddy due to rain.
Krushak Sakti Sangathan Convenor Sanjay Tiwari says the farmers of other panchayats of the district like Duajhar village of Khariar block, Mandobirli village of Boden block and Pendrawan and Nagaon villages of Komna block in the district have incurred losses in the yield due to rain-caused damage.
However, none of the farmers have reported about their losses to the district administration. "It is useless to report about the loss to the administration.
Farmers of Tukla village had cultivated onion, pulses, tomato, sunflower and wheat in about 20 hectares of land last year. Everything was lost due to frost, I personally reported about the loss to the district Collector, who directed the Khariar Tehsildar for an inquiry, but no financial support was provided under any scheme to the farmers who incurred lost due to that natural calamity," rues Kali Dash. "We need the Mandi to open as early as possible so that our paddy is procured" he adds. "The district-level procurement committee meeting, where a decision for Rabi paddy procurement and opening of Mandi would be taken, has not yet been held.
We don't know when the paddy would be procured," wonder Sanjay Tiwari, who further demands that the farmers who have faced losses should be compensated under the input subsidy scheme.
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