No takers for these groundnut seeds

According to information available, nearly 15 truckloads of groundnut seeds weighing about 70,000 quintals have been lying under open sky to be unloaded at a warehouse of Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) in Baramunda here for past one week.

The seeds meant for Rabi crop are supposed to reach farmers in Nayagarh, Khurda and Puri districts through dealers and Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), said sources. But lack of communication between the government and these supplying agencies has ended in such a situation.

“We are now making bank drafts, required to receive the seeds. Had we been intimated earlier we could have done these much before,” said a dealer on condition of anonymity.    

More so, lack of storage facility in the warehouse has worsened the situation. The government, on the other hand is yet to make any alternative arrangement for storage of these seeds, a source said.

While the recent hailstorms in coastal and western Odisha have forced the farmers to incur heavy crop losses, the situation has raised question on government’s co-ordination in procurement and supply of these seeds badly needed by the farmers for which they mostly rely on the government.