Udaipur : First it had been the demonetization act at the onset of Rabi season, that hit hard on farmers and now the delay in setting up of government centers to buy the Rabi crops is aggrieving the peasant community. Farmers union in Udaipur has warned the government that if procuring centers are not set up within a fortnight, the community would resort to mass protest across the state.

Members of Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) met Udaipur collector on Thursday and demanded to set up Rabi crop procuring centers at various places. “ The state government failed in facilitating purchase of groundnut crop earlier. Now that the Rabi crops have been harvested, the government has taken no steps to procure them at minimum support price” said Partha Dangi, district president-BKS. As the government agencies have not started buying the crops, farmers specially in remote tribal areas are forced to sell their crops to private agencies for petty amount, he added.

There had been reasonably well production of wheat, chana dal, mustard-rapeseed during the Rabi season. “ It is a double whammy for us farmers. First we didn’t have money for sowing and to pay for the agriculture inputs like seeds and fertilizers. Marginalized farmers took loans and managed to complete the sowing, but now they are uncertain of getting a fair deal due to government’s apathy” Narayan Sewak, secretary BKS said.