The farmers' commission under the chairmanship of Sri. S.K. Patnaik, IAS ( Retd) ( Ex Chief Secretary Orissa) and three other members, including Sri. Gadadhar Parida, former Koraput Collector, visited Rayagada district to interact wit the district administration, officials from Agriculture dept and the leading farmers of the Rayagada and Gajapati districts.
During the course of this interaction problems such as lack of proper and timely irrigation facilities, non availability of seeds and fertilizers, hassles in crop insurance and others were the major issues raised the farmers' representatives. Besides this, the lack of proper marketing support in the form of procurement at MSP was the major issue the farmers highlighted. Another important issue raised by some farmers was that of non availability of RGL Superfine variety of rice seeds in Orissa and their consequent dependance on the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh for that.
Collector Rayagada, Dr. Nitin.B.Jawle, while summarisng the discussion stressed the need for providing strong backward and forward linkages to the farming communities, as agriculture still continues to be 'gamble with the monsoons' in most parts of the state. While describing the success of agriculture in his home state of Maharashtra, he told that without the triad of strong backward linkage support mechanism in the form of assured irrigation facilities, timely supply of seeds and fertilizers and propers & timely technical inputs from officials of agriculture dept. the success in agriculture, in an otherwise arid and dry state like Maharashtra, wouldn't have been possible.
While admitting the fact that a lot needs to be on this count in the dsitricts of south Orissa, particularly undivided Koraput region of which Rayagada was a part, a lot of effort still goes into to providing timely assistance to the farmers, but beacuse of the overall infrastructural and other conditions of these areas, it, for most of the times, is not possible and as a result, neither the productivity has increased substantially , nor has there been much innovation in agricultural practices, other than the taking up of cotton as a major cash crop in the Rayagada region, which has been a result of influnce of the farming communities from Andhra.
Secondly, in matters of forward linkage in the form of marketing of agricultural produce, Collector Rayagada appraised the house, that an 'e- procurement' system, is planned to be undertaken in Rayagada district in the coming procurement season, based on the Biometric based TPDS project information which is available with the Civil supplies dept, which will ensure that the procurement is done from the bonafide farmers and that he gets his due. This will go a long way in checking the distress sale of paddy and help in bettering the financial condtion of farmers, especially marginal ones.
Collector Rayagada also expresed deep concern over the lack of sense responsibilty and mangerial abilities in some Pani panchayats, because of which many intitiatives which could have otherise changed the lot of the farmers, have failed. It has also hindered the growth of the farmer bodies into a formidable force, which can dictate terms in the market. This is precisely what distinguishes the model states, where the coopertaive movement has been taken in its right spirit and revolutionary changes have been seen in the farming communities.
There were some more important issues raised by the farmers such as govt of Orissa not allowing the cultivation of Bt cotton, to which the commission assured that the same will be allowed soon.
Last but not the least, the farmers' representative expressed their concerns over the non availability of farm labor in times of need, due to a rather benevolent scheme of the govt, NREGS and the Rs. 2 per Kg Rice scheme. Some of them also told that farm labour, if available, is a at a prohibitive cost of five times the wage that were paid earlier.
