Soon, all Kisan Mandis to have machine to dry up moisture from rice, remove dust

Kolkata: State Agriculture and Food and Supplies department have decided to install an advanced machine at all the Kisan Mandis run by the state government to dry up moisture in rice and remove the dust particles from the grains to save farmers from being hoodwinked by the rice mill owners.

State Agriculture minister Asish Banerjee and Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick will hold a high-level meeting with senior officials of their departments at Khadya Bhawan on January 10 to lay out a comprehensive strategy and roadmap to ensure that the paddy farmers get the price as fixed by the state government.

It has been alleged that the go-down owners or Arotdars often force the farmers to believe that huge amounts of moisture and dust particles are found in the grains.

This happens only because there is no proper machine that can dry up the moisture and separate the dust from rice and other food grains.

This practice often leads to a huge loss for the cultivators. Keeping this in view, the Agriculture and Food and Supplies departments have come up with an idea of installing machines at Kisan Mandis so that the farmers get proper price for their produce.

The new machines will be

installed at the Kisan Mandis where the farmers can separate the moisture of rice, isolate the dust from grains and get adequate price for their produce.

The machine will also help them to weigh their produce before selling them. It may be mentioned that both the departments have started distributing cheques among the farmers in all the districts and there has been a huge response so far.

Following the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, both the departments have already started a crackdown on the middlemen who have been causing difficulties in the procurement of paddy from the farmers.

Banerjee expressed her concern over the middlemen menace during her recent meeting at Nabanna in December and issued necessary instructions in this regard.

Both the Agriculture and Food and Supplies Department have started a massive crackdown on the middlemen in all the districts to iron out the earlier practice that had been prevailing in the state so far.

The Chief Minister also reiterated the position of her government saying that they wanted to procure directly from the farmers thereby increasing the target of the overall paddy procurement in the state.