The meeting was convened by the Commission against the backdrop of the harrowing experiences of the farmers and the difficulties they faced in selling their paddy during the just concluded season. Despite a bountiful harvest and remunerative minimum support price (MSP) plus bonus totalling Rs 950 a quintal, the Bihar farmers could not reap full benefits. Long wait at the purchase centres, domination of unscrupulous middle men, lack of gunny bags and storage facilities forced a large number of farmers to resort to distress sale at the rate of even Rs 650-700 a quintal. In many places, paddy lying in the open and waiting to be sold sprouted after the drizzle, putting farmers to huge losses. The lucky ones who managed to sell their paddy after braving these hardships faced considerable difficulty in obtaining payment. During the procurement, hardly a day passed when Commission Chairman Ramadhar did not personally receive aggrieved farmers or their telephone/fax messages from different parts of the state.
While the meeting considered the achievement of 12 lakh tonnes of paddy procurement, last season as an improvement over previous years record, it was woefully short of Bihars potential. According to an estimate made by the Farmers Commission, at least 50 per cent (37 lakh tonnes) of the total paddy production of about 75 lakh tonnes passes through trading channels. On a rough estimation, about 25 lakh tonnes or one-third of the total production could be easily procured by the Government agencies, if an efficient and streamlined procurement system were in place. This is quite feasible in the light of experiences of some other states where a sizeable percentage of total production is procured by the Government agencies: Punjab 78 per cent, Chhattisgarh 58 per cent, Andhra Pradesh 51 per cent, Haryana 50 per cent, Orissa 30 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 25 per cent.

Initiating the discussion, Ramadhar, the chairman of the Commission, emphasized that the Road Map launched by the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, and the priority accorded to agriculture sector by the State Government has raised high hopes among the farmers and they are striving hard to increase their income by dint of their hard work and by availing benefits under the various programmes. Remunerative price for their produce was the strongest incentive to sustain the interest of farmers in agriculture and no effort should be spared to ensure this, he added.

Secretary, Food and Consumer Affairs, Tripurari Sharan, briefed the meeting on various steps the State Government has been taking to further streamline the system. The representative of the Cooperation Department provided information on the proposed expanded role of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) in procurement operations and measures to enhance their administrative, managerial and financial capacity. Representatives of FCI, NAFED, State Food & Civil Supplies Corporation and BISCOMAUN provided details of their ongoing and proposed activities. NAFED and NSEL provided information on their maize purchase operations.

One of the major constraints during the last procurement operation was the lack of storage capacity. Bihar has 10 lakh tonnes of storage capacity against the estimated requirement of 28 lakh tonnes. Chief General Manager, NABARD urged Government agencies to take full advantage of the funds available under RIDF and other schemes of NCDC and DMI. There was also a need for launching an information campaign so that public could also take advantage of the subsidies available under these programmes. In view of the importance of this issue, it was agreed to recommend to the Government on the need of a Coordination Committee with Secretary, Food and Consumer Affairs Department as Convener and CGM, NABARD, Cooperative Department, NCDC, Central Warehousing Corporation, State Food Corporation and State Warehousing Corporation representative as members. This Coordination Committee should meet on a monthly basis and review the progress of development of storage-related schemes and measures to take full advantage of funding support under these schemes.

The meeting was attended by Tripurari Sharan, Dr Sandeep Ghosh, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Prof. A. Ahmad and Dr P.N. Jha, Members of the Commission, Dr R K P Singh, Salahkar of the Commission and representatives of Cooperation and Agriculture departments, State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation, State Warehousing Corporation, BISCOMAUN, Food Corporation of India. Central Warehousing Corporation, NAFED, NCDC, Directorate of Marketing and Inspection and National Spot Exchange Limited.

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