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Kalahandi, where majority of population depends on Agriculture, this is the time and season when all the harvesting is complete and farmers are busy either in selling their produce, or busy storing it. In places, where it is fed by the Indravati irrigation, they are preparing for the next cycle of cultivation.
In this context let me bring up a scenario, which might throw a little light on the level of corruption and exploitation taking place, and efforts are being made to cover that. I hope this will add a little voice to bring awareness on suffering of our local farmers.
Like many panchayats, Mandal is a panchayat, comes under Kalampur block, which is part of Dharamgarh sub-division. After the harvest, Government decided rate per 100 kg bag of paddy(dhan) is to be 950 rupees. Farmer can sell their produce at that rate.
Government empowers RMC ( Regional Marketing Corporation, excuse me if I am mistaken the full-form of it ) to do a quality control of the Dhan, it’s moisture level etc etc. and for that RMC is supposed to get some commission which I was told Rs19.50. Recently RMC decided to engage the panchayat co-operatives, locally known as ‘gola’ to purchase it from farmer at the govt. decided rate , for which co-operative society will get Rs 28.80 per 100kg bag. With this setup farmers will have and should have the opportunity of selling their produce in proper prices without falling under the prey of middle-man and rice mill owners. And they can get their proper due on time without any hassle.
Now, Let us look at the ground reality. In spite of all these arrangement, the local panchayat co-operative society, under the influence of the some unknown parties which will benefit the otherway by taking a slice of farmers due money, DENIES buying directly from farmers in govt decided price.
Mostly the reasons were given that:
- panchayat has no place to store.
- The rice mill truck should directly come to load. I failed to understand how this would have solved the farmer’s problem if they had to wait for those trucks. Govt. has made these arrangements to save farmers from that exploitation explicitly.
If it would have been transparent, co-operative society would have made a good financial progress by getting the govt commission per bag. Instead the people at the helm of the affair decided that if they manipulate this they will take the direct cut from the millers and that money will go to their pocket instead of co-operative society.
Look at the situation, Government is trying to implement a program to create opportunity for the farmers to get their proper due, but the local authority who is in control does not want to implement that. Farmer is left with no choice other than falling into the same prey of selling their produce at lower price. And here the lower price means Rs950 vs Rs 650 per 100kg. And there have been cases of Farmer not getting their money paid for next 6-10 months. Where the farmer will go? How many mile they will have to travel to sell their produce? They are farmers .. not Traders ?
Luckily this time, the Mandal panchayat people got this into the eyes of media, and one of our local journalists reported this to a state level news paper. Which came to the eyes of state level supply ministry. Later it was found that , Bhawanipatna Collector summoned that journalist to ask ‘ why are you reporting false ?’. That journalist made a telephone call (thanks to the cell phone and the towers were working ) directly to a particular village farmer, and they voiced their concern. Bhawanipatna Collector then talked to Dharamgarh sub-collector to find out about this matter. Dharamgarh sub-collector then ordered a local NGO/Company to buy those produce from farmers. And within week time period the farmers got their due. With this, still there are cases where farmers have not been successful in getting the proper opportunity to sell their produce. And it will not be a surprise if we get to hear the similar stories in other blocks and panchayats. Also what have come to my knowledge is that this is case for almost all the farmers throughout Orissa.
For a farmer, if they have to sell their produce at 30% less than the government decided rate, that is a loss to them. And for the farmer, if they do not sell at the right time they will have no place to store, and it will add to their loss. They wait to sell their produce so that they can cover the cost which they took as a loan during the cultivation time. The old days are gone that people were keeping their produce in their local means of storage. Farming is somewhat advanced and commercialized now. Like any other business, it also has its own lifecycle and turnover time, if market place is not created properly, then all the produce are a complete waste. In farming there is no lag time, if it happens in right time then it is a gain, or else it is a total loss.
I was told to bring this notice, if I can. There are lots of efforts for improvement in many corners of Kalahandi. But nobody thinks about the basics needs of local farmers.
We were reading in our early days …
‘ chasa kama jahara . kede sukha tahara ‘
‘sei sina duniya ku jogauchi aahara’
Is this line still holds true? Second line might be ?
Can a farmer have the basic needs of current times?
Can we dare to be a farmer, if we know these realities next to us?
Can we dare to tie our education, experience, Charisma, expertise with farming, rather than whatever profession we are in?
Is it not un-fortunate that Farmers are poor in our locals, where it is the mostly adopted occupation of local citizens? !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!
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