Widespread unseasonal rain has caused extensive damage to harvested paddy crop in the middle of the procurement season across western Odisha.
Nine out of 30 districts received rainfall ranging from 10 mm to 53 mm last Thursday. There were reports of hailstorm occurring in some districts.
The unseasonal rain caught the farmers unawares. Unable to sell the paddy as per schedule, many farmers had stored their stocks at different mandis and were also guarding it.
“For the last 10 days I was trying to sell my produce. Thursday’s unexpected rain poured cold water on any hopes for sale,” Suresh Patel, a farmer in Subarnapur district told The Hindu.
The procurement of paddy for Kharif season started in November. Barring a few centres in Sambalpur and Bargarh districts, the paddy procurement did not pick pace.
Hundreds of gunny bags filled with paddy were lying in the open fields as the farmers had no clue about the impending rain and nor did they know how to save the crop from the downpour.
“Nowadays, the procurement agencies keep a portion of grain from every quintal of paddy citing low quality of the grains. The farmers fear that after the rain washed away their stocks, they might now be asked to forcibly cough up higher quantity of paddy at the mandis,” said Ashok Pradhan, convener of Western Odisha Farmer Organisations Coordination Committee (WOFOCC),
“The situation turned bad as the State government failed to provide the farmers with proper infrastructure to store the produce at the market yards. The government should make immediate assessment on the adverse impact of unseasonal rain and come up with package to provide relief to farmers,” he demanded.
It may be recalled that farmers in western Odisha escaped the wrath of the rain triggered by cyclone, Jawad, on December 4 and 5. The coastal districts had borne the brunt then. The western district farmers saw their turn last week.
