March 19: Farmers in the terai region are unable to sell paddy to the government because they need bank account to be eligible to sell their produce.

In addition to that, they are also required to show land ownership certificate of at least one bigha and 10 kathhas (1 hectare approx.) of land in order to sell paddy to the state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited.

Ram Pukar Mandal, information officer of Janakpur-based regional office of the Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL), says that most of the farmers are not able to sell rice to the company because they cultivate rice on other people's land.

“The farmers could not complete the process to sell rice,” said Mandal.

The regional office of the (FMTCL), Janakpurdham has not been able to purchase paddy as per the target in the current fiscal year.

Although the target is to purchase 15,000 quintals of paddy in the current fiscal year, the company has purchased only 964.25 quintals of paddy till mid-March.

Information Officer Ram Pukar Mandal said that in the current fiscal year, paddy worth Rs 3,016,174 will be purchased. He also admitted that the FMTCL could not be purchase paddy this year as per the target.

Mandal argued that because of the decision of Agriculture Knowledge Center that at least 10 quintals of paddy should be bought per farmer, the paddy produced by lower-class farmers could not be bought. He said that farmers were unable to come to sell rice to the company because of the procedural hurdles.