Kathmandu. Stakeholders have raised voiced that even though the government has fixed the minimum support price for paddy, farmers are forced to sell it at cheaper prices.
Even after the government has fixed the minimum support price for paddy, the farmers have to sell paddy at a cheaper price. The government has made arrangements to purchase paddy through cooperatives at minimum support price.
In an interaction organized at the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday, the stakeholders said that the farmers have always been affected due to the weakness of the government. Panchakaji Shrestha, Vice-President of the National Farmers Group Federation, said that the government has fixed the MSP of paddy in July but the process of cheating farmers by traders has not stopped this year either. He said that the traders have got an opportunity to take advantage of the failure to procure paddy on time as the government bodies at all three levels are not responsible.
Khem Pathak, President of the Federation of Nepal Agricultural Cooperatives, said that the traders have already purchased paddy from the farmers at a much lower price than the MSP fixed by the government. So far, the cooperative has been able to procure only 20 metric tonnes of paddy, he said. He said that paddy could not be procured from farmers as the government did not issue the directive in time.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development Dr. Hari Bahadur KC, on the other hand, argued that arrangements have been made to purchase paddy through cooperatives besides newly restructured Food and Trade Company. He added that the cooperatives have to send the total price of paddy to the farmers’ account within 15 days after purchasing the paddy. The government will provide a subsidy of Rs.112 per quintal to the cooperatives, KC said.
The government had fixed the price of coarse paddy at Rs 2,735 per quintal and medium paddy at Rs 2,885 per quintal for the current fiscal year. For the first time, this year, the ministry has also made arrangements to purchase paddy through cooperatives.
However, the Council of Ministers has approved the ‘Directive on Procurement and Management of Paddy at Minimum Support Price, 2077 BS’ only on October 19. Due to which the cooperatives could not procure paddy on time.
Farmers have been forced to sell paddy to traders at cheaper prices due to the fact that the paddy planted in July will be ready for hasvesting in November.
The ministry estimates that paddy is cultivated in 1.5 million hectares across the country this year and about 5.6 million metric tonnes of paddy is produced.
