Farmers feel the pinch due to delay in paddy procurement

Paddy stocks have piled up at the mills and sudden rains have damaged dried paddy causing huge losses

Gudipally Vishnuvardhan Reddy, a native of Kalher village in Sangareddy district, cultivated paddy in about 10 acres and harvested the crop. The crop was ready for lifting to the mill after weighing. Though the paddy procurement centre was inaugurated formally, full operations have not yet commenced. It is reported that the fifty-year-old farmer has been waiting for his paddy to be lifted for the past three weeks. On Monday night there was a rain in which he got soaked and on Tuesday morning, while covering the dried paddy with a tarpaulin sheet, he fell down. Ohter farmers immediately shifted him to a hospital and he recovered.

At several places, the sudden rains have damaged the paddy that was spread on drying platforms as well as on roads, causing huge loss to farmers. Officials are admitting that the lower layer of paddy will start sprouting due to moisture and the farmers have no other option.

This is just the tip of an iceberg on how the farmers are finding it difficult to lift the paddy from drying platforms. Though some farmers are alleging that gunny bags were not supplied at the platforms to lift the paddy from the field, the officials are stating that it is not new and for the past two years they have been extending gunny bags only after paddy was brought to the procurement centres to avoid any misuse of bags. Even the farmers are accepting that in the past some farmers have misused gunny bags, leading to such restrictions.