Keeping in view the interests of the farmers of Orissa hit by unseasonal rains, the state government has sought a relaxation in Fair Average Quality (FAQ) norms for the state without any value cut in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy and rice.
The demand was made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during his meeting with Sharad Pawar, the Union minister for agriculture and food & public distribution in New Delhi.
Patnaik also stressed that there is an urgent need to announce a bonus of at least Rs 100 per quintal over and above the MSP for paddy to provide relief to the farmers of Orissa.
He drew the attention of the Union agriculture minister about non-declaration of any bonus on MSP by the Government of India for the current kharif marketing season.
Patanik told the Union minister that the unseasonal rains caused by the cyclonic depression in the Bay of Bengal during the first fortnight of December 2010 have severely impacted the quality and quantum of paddy crop in the state.
"During the last six months of the calendar year 2010, Orissa has faced a calamity of rare severity, affecting about 73 per cent of the villages in the state. Over 19000 hectares of the cropped area have faced a crop loss of more than 50 per cent on account of the acute drought that occurred during August and September 2010 followed by unseasonal heavy rains in December”, Patnaik said.
"The calamity has caused extreme distress to the farmers of the state who need to be provided with adequate and timely support to compensate for their losses. The tests conducted on harvested paddy throughout the state reveal that the unseasonal rains in December 2010 have caused extensive damage to the paddy crop including discolouring of paddy”, he added.
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Pawar appreciated the concerns of the state and assured the Chief Minister his full support.
The Union minister further said that he was aware of the difficult conditions being faced by the farmers of Orissa, particularly on account of unseasonal rains of December 2010 and assured to take all feasible measures to provide maximum relief to the farmers.
He stated that a Quality Control team has been sent to Orissa for taking samples of paddy and after receipts of their reports next week, appropriate relaxation in FAQ norms without value cut will be provided to Orissa.
On Thursday, Patnaik had called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and requested him to release funds amounting to Rs 2616.19 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund to assist the lives of the affected people of the state.