This year, the Food Management and Trading Company Limited has set the purchase price of coarse rice at Rs 3,463.81 per quintal and is purchasing rice by setting up depots in various places in Kailali and Kanchanpur. However, farmers are forced to sell to local food traders for Rs 2,500 as in the past.

This year, the Food Ministry has set a quota of 35,000 quintals of rice for Kailali and 5,000 quintals for Kanchanpur.

There are several reasons why farmers in Kailali and Kanchanpur are forced to sell rice to local food traders at a lower price than the price offered by the government. According to farmers, the first reason is that it is difficult to sell rice to the Food Ministry. That is, it is not guaranteed that the rice delivered by farmers to the Food Ministry will be sold. Second, since the quota of rice purchased by the Food Ministry is low, it needs access to sell the rice it has purchased.

Third, the Food Ministry does not immediately pay the farmers the amount of rice sold. Another reason is that local food traders have already paid farmers in advance for the purchase of rice at the time of planting. Motiram Chaudhary, a farmer from Kailari, Kailali, said, “These are the three or four main reasons why farmers are forced to sell to local food traders at a rate of Rs 1,000 per quintal.”

Farmers say that selling paddy to food is a cumbersome process. Food has made it mandatory for farmers to bring a recommendation from the ward office to sell paddy. On the other hand, food only buys clean and well-dried paddy.

Farmers say that they spend money on transportation to the food depot from far away, but the employees send it back saying that the paddy is not clean. “But there is no such hassle with local food traders,” says Rebant Bohara, another farmer from Kailari. “Even if the price is low, there is no worry that the paddy will not be sold after it is delivered to the trader.” On the other hand, grain traders also try to stop farmers from taking the paddy to the food depot to sell it.

According to a local food trader in Kailali, traders buy rice from farmers at a cheap price and sell it at a high price to the food department. ‘There is collusion between the traders with access and the food department employees.’ The food department has set a standard for purchasing a maximum of 50 quintals of rice from a farmer, but a single trader sells many times more rice than that.

‘The food department asks for the recommendation of the ward office, the traders arrange it all.’ But Deepak Thapa, head of the Food Management and Trade Company Limited Provincial Office, Dhangadhi, claims that this is wrong. He said, ‘We purchase by looking at the documents and recommendations of the ward office. We look at the paper, not the person’s face.’

Thapa, head of the provincial office, said that 22,579 quintals of rice had been purchased in Kailali in the ten days since the procurement process began. ‘We have set up six procurement depots in Kailali, and there is a huge pressure from farmers who come to sell rice at each depot. There is a long line,' said Thapa, 'We have created a coupon system because of the high pressure, and we are operating two harvests at each depot.' He estimated that this year's rice purchase quota will be completed by Kartik.

Farmers who went to sell rice at the food depot have been waiting for four to five days without getting their turn to sell. Prem Chaudhary of Bhajani in Kailali says that it is their turn to sell after waiting for four days. Farmers who have reached the food depot are panicking after the food depot started telling them that the purchase quota is about to be completed.