The arrival of Parmal paddy is picking up across Haryana, but procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) is struggling to keep pace, with high moisture in freshly harvested crop, shortage of active rice millers and pending stocks from the previous season leaving farmers facing delays and, in some cases, distress sales to private traders.
8.92 lakh metric tonnes of crop arrived at 249 centers in 22 districts of the state, according to the data uploaded on the e-kharid portal dashboard as of 7 pm on Tuesday. Of the total arrival, 45%, 4.02 LMT), of the crop has been auctioned for purchase by the three agencies: Food Corporation of India (FCI), Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED) and Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC).
About the delay in lifting, he said that this year the government has introduced a new OTP system for the lifting of procured paddy which is the root cause behind the delayed and tardy lifting. On being contacted principal secretary ,food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department Amneet P Kumar shared a statement saying that the government has made elaborate arrangements to ensure that every grain of farmers’ produce is procured at the minimum support price (MSP) and the procurement process is being continuously monitored, while necessary facilities have been ensured at the mandis for the convenience of farmers. Even as the government agencies began procurement of paddy at MSP of ₹ 2,441 per quintal for common paddy and ₹ 2,461 for grade A fixed by the Centre, on September 29, but farmers and commission agents say purchases have remained below the pace of arrivals in several mandis, especially in the northern districts of the state. Since the government has fixed 17% as the maximum permissible moisture under fair average quality norms, farmers whose produce exceeds the moisture limit are being forced to either wait for it to dry or sell to private buyers at discounted rates. According to farmers the problem is being compounded by a limited number of rice millers participating in government procurement.Of nearly 1400 rice millers in the state, around 500 have joined the procurement operations so far as the government has made it clear that rice millers with pending stock of rice of last year will not be authorised to make procurements. Farmers showed ‘kachi parchi’ to Sharma, explaining the ₹ 2,060 per quintal and ₹ 2,100 per quintal rates given to some of them despite moisture content being below the prescribed limit of 17%. All Haryana Rice Millers and Dealers Association president Hans Raj Singla said that all rice millers were ready to join the procurement but there was some issue with the pending CMR with around 300 rice millers in the state While talking to HT.
Because of higher moisture and lack of rice millers authorised by the government for procurement, praveen Kumar, a farmer from Karnal’s Niolkheri said he sold produce from about six acres to private traders for ₹ 2,150- ₹ 2,275 per quintal against the MSP of ₹ 2461.
Speaking to reporters, the DC said that he came across several problems faced by the farmers and issued directions to officials to resolve them. On being contacted, a senior official said that decision about the pending rice will be taken after the chief minister will return from his foreign tour.
