Mahbubnagar: Paddy procurement process a tough task for farmers

Mahbubnagar: Paddy farmers of the district are facing tough time as the millers are denying stocking the farmers' paddy after the government procures it.

According to Ramchander, a farmer from Shankarayapally village and Srinu from Bandamidipally, after repeated requests to Agriculture Officer (AO) and the PACS members for more than one month to procure their paddy stocked in their villages through Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS), the officials have given gunny bags and tokens 15 days ago. After literally fighting and pressurising the AO and PACS society members, paddy stocked in the village was weighed, but again transport became another problem for the farmers, as the PACS society members cleared that it's farmers' responsibility to transport paddy to the mills.

Srinu questioned, if they were to spend months together for paddy procurement and transportation overheads, how could they prepare for the next season as monsoon already started.

Another farmer Ramchander said, even after transporting the procured paddy to the designated mills by the government, the millers are not willing to unload the load citing various reasons. "We brought about 500 bags of paddy to a mill in Bhootpur as directed by agriculture officials. After reaching the mill, the miller denied unloading the paddy due to lack of space and asked us to wait for one or two days," he explained. Ramchander urged the government to arrange transportation and free the farmers from all these logistic hassles.

When contacted Venkat Narayana, the rice mill owner in Bhootpur, he said that the PACS society and the agriculture officers were sending more lorries with paddy stock to the mill despite the fact that there is limited space in the mill to stock the paddy. He informed that there was record paddy production this year. 'Unlike earlier, we received got huge stocks beyond our expectations and unprepared to store such huge stocks. Due to lack of space in the rice mill, farmers, transporters as well as rice mill owners are facing tough time to deal with the situation. However, we are asking the farmers to bear with us and to wait for a day or two until we prepare for some alternative," he stated.