JEYPORE: The district administration’s decision not to procure non-FAQ (fair average quality) paddy from mandis in the ongoing kharif season has irked the local farmers. Paddy crop in the district this season was damaged due to the drought-like situation and flood. Farmers said under these circumstances, a large amount of produce did not meet the FAQ norm.Paddy was cultivated over a lakh hectares in Jeypore sub-division and Koraput during the monsoon and production is estimated to be around 1.5 lakh tonne. Procurement is scheduled to begin on December 20.Of the 1.5 lakh tonne, the administration in a procurement meeting recently decided to buy just 69,000 metric tonne (MT) through government and private agencies from 34 mandis.Farmers said due to scanty rainfall during the flowering stage, grains were damaged and discoloured. They added that in the previous years, even the paddy that did not meet the FAQ standard was procured by the administration at negotiable rates. However, the present decision would affect the poor farmers who faced the nature’s fury twice this year. “The district administration, procurement agencies and millers should consider the ground realities during the procurement,” said Ug Mandal, secretary of Dhanpur distributary committee. The farmers alleged that the district administration had called the meeting without involving the pani panchayats that comprise over a lakh farmers in the district. “The procurement should be fair and the administration should also buy paddy from all the farmers irrespective of the kind of produce. The crops had been damaged due to conditions beyond their control,” said SS Rao, director of Upper Kolab Project Committee, an apex body of pani panchayats.
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