Balasore: Pulse farmers gave vent to their frustrations as a two-member central team, headed by a scientist of the ministry of agriculture, visited some blocks in the district's northern parts to oversee the cultivation in the region. Birendra Singh was accompanied by district agriculture officials and general manager of central warehouse corporation. They visited Bhograi, Jaleswar, Basta and Baliapal where they interacted with farmers associated with pulse cultivation and tried to ascertain the problems they faced.

Singh wanted to know whether the farmers had the soil tested before plantation, the seed treatment process and use of fertilisers and pesticides, their weeding methods, yield per hectare and market.

Although the farmers said they received help from the department and showed their soil test certificates, they complained about the distress sale of pulses. They alleged that they were forced to sell moong and Bengal gram at Rs 30 to Rs 35 a kg against the Centre's minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 55 a kg last year.

They alleged that the lack of marketing facilities such as Markfed - co-operative marketing federations like those in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh - and the Nafed had enabled middlemen to exploit them. "The farmers mainly raised the issue of distress sale because of the absence of marketing agencies and urged the team to address the issue. They complained that while they were forced to sell their produce for Rs 30-Rs 35 a kg against the central MSP of Rs 55 last year, the price in the open market was between Rs 60 and Rs 70 a kg," said assistant agriculture officer, Basta block, Sanjay Rout.

"The farmers said that they had reduced the area of cultivation this year because of last year's distress sale," he said. According to department sources, pulses are grown on around 12,000-15,000 hectares in north Balasore with around 25,000 farmers involved. The yield per hectare is around 8 to 10 quintals, sources said.

"Last year's yield was satisfactory, but we didn't find the market. We demand that a government agency should procure the produce," said Gokulananda Rout of Talatapanda village of Basta block, a pulse cultivator.

"The team gave assurance that it would apprise the ministry about their situation," said deputy agriculture director Kailash Chandra Parida.