In parched region, paddy farmers’ plight: Long wait to sell their crop

His home constituency Tindwari in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district goes to the polls in the fourth phase on Wednesday but Rati Ram, a farmer from the village of Jari, is not sure if he will be there to cast his vote.

The Indian Express caught up with Rati Ram and other farmers on Sunday outside a paddy procurement centre of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) at Vishisht Mandi Sthal on the Banda-Mahoba road. By then, they had been waiting for several days with 19 tractor-trolleys full of crops to sell.

Standing beside his paddy-laden trolley, Rati Ram said, “Hamare pas 90-95 quintal dhaan tha. Ab yahan liye pade hain… (I had about 90-95 quintals of paddy. I have brought it for sale here).”

He added, “Koi yahan ka prabandhak ya adhikari koi vyavastha nahin hai jo yahan dekhe ki kisan mar raha hai ki ji raha hai. Aaj mujhe trolley khade kiye terhwan din hai. (There is no system in place or any manager who can see what farmers are going through).”

Among the others in a similar predicament was Hanuman Prasad from the district’s Tindwara village. “Teen din ho gaye yahan aaye. (It has been three days since I came here),” he told The Indian Express, adding that he too was not sure if his crop would be procured before election day.

The quandary that the farmers are facing has become a talking point in the district that is located in the parched Bundelkhand region. Bundelkhand receives average annual rainfall between 78.66 to 94.55 cm. This is less than ideal for a water-guzzling crop like paddy that requires 100- 200 cm of rain. While canal irrigation is available at some places, at many places farmers draw groundwater from a depth of 100 to 125 feet.

However, more than losing out on a chance to exercise their franchise, the farmers The Indian Express spoke to said they were worried about not being able to sell their crop before the procurement season concludes on February 28. The process began on November 1 but several farmers are still struggling to sell their produce.

Most farmers choose to sell their crop at procurement centres rather than the open market since the centres buy their crops at higher rates. The procurement centres, which deal with only registered farmers, provide a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,940 per quintal for common paddy and Rs 1,960 per quintal for grade “A” paddy. Though farmers visiting the centres bear a cost of Rs 20 per quintal to get the paddy cleaned and unloaded, they still ended up making more money as the prevailing rate in the open market was Rs 1,200-1,300 per quintal, said Rati Ram.

He also alleged irregularities in the paddy procurement process, saying people with “political connections” were given preference.

Questioning the BJP government’s promise of doubling farmers’ Income by this year, Rati Ram said while the MSP had been increased Rs 10-20 per quintal, fuel prices had skyrocketed. Their problems have also been compounded by a stray cattle menace and the unavailability of fertilisers.

Banda District Cooperative Bank (DCB) chairman Badri Vishal Tripathi acknowledged that delays in paddy procurement was a big issue, but added that like farmers his bank too was facing challenges.

“There are several procurement centres where farmers are still waiting to sell their paddy. About 30 per cent paddy farmers have not yet been able to sell their crop,” Tripathi said.

He told The Indian Express that DCB, Banda, had procured 55,000 tonnes of paddy from farmers during the current kharif marketing season. This has to be delivered to rice mills but the mills, Tripathi alleged, delay the transport of the procured quantity. The weight of the paddy reduces in storage and it becomes a liability for cooperatives, he added.

District Food Marketing Officer CP Pandey said of the 64 procurement centres in the district, 26 were functioning at present. According to him, each of these can procure a maximum of 200 quintals a day.

Asked why farmers were waiting for days to sell their crop, Pandey said, “We have not seen such kind of pressure on paddy procurement in districts except Banda in February.”

The official denied allegations of irregularities in procurement. He said an estimated 22 to 24 lakh quintals of paddy was grown in Banda during the kharif season, and so far, 12,000 to 13,000 farmers had sold their crop. Pandey claimed that the procurement process would be expedited after February 24 and crops would be procured from all the registered farmers by the end of the month.

This election, an intense contest is expected in Tindwari between incumbent MLA Brajesh Kumar Prajapati who switched over from the BJP to the Samajwadi Party (SP) along with former state minister Swami Prasad Maurya, and the ruling party’s district president Ramkesh Nishad. In 2017, Brajesh Kumar Prajapati trumped his nearest rival Jagdish Prasad Prajapati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) by 37,407 votes. This time, the Mayawati-led party has fielded its longtime worker Jayram Singh while the Congress candidate is Adishakti. In the past, former Prime Minister VP Singh represented Tindwari, winning a by-election in June 1981.

Apart from Tindwari, Banda has three more Assembly constituencies — Baberu, Naraini (reserved seat for Scheduled Castes) and Banda. In 2017, the BJP won all four seats while the BSP was the runners-up in three seats and the Congress in one. It was a complete turnaround from five years earlier when the BJP failed to bag even a single seat. In the 2012 polls, the Congress won two of the constituencies, while the SP and the BSP bagged one each.