Regardless of beneficial climate situations, the tempo of harvesting has slowed down as a result of nearly 90% of the procured crop being caught in mandis, and personal rice millers refusing to retailer authorities paddy. This case, stemming from a mix of logistical, bureaucratic, and political components, is more likely to worsen with out swift intervention.
How does paddy procurement work ?
The Centre, in session with state governments and the Meals Company of India (FCI), finalises estimates for paddy procurement yearly previous to the graduation of the kharif advertising and marketing season (October to September).
State authorities companies and the FCI buy paddy from farmers inside a stipulated interval for the central pool on the Minimal Assist Value (MSP). This paddy is milled, after which the procured rice is transported by the FCI to authorities storage amenities throughout the nation. There it’s saved for sustaining the buffer inventory, or additional distributed for consumption beneath the Nationwide Meals Safety Act (NFSA) and different welfare schemes.
What’s the present standing of paddy procurement in Punjab?
As of October 23, solely 37.68 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured by the FCI from Punjab, nicely under the 49 lakh tonne mark on the identical time final 12 months, and a far cry from the anticipated 185 lakh tonnes for all the season. The height procurement season ends within the first week of November.
The gradual motion of procured paddy from the mandis (grain markets) is the most important concern. Whereas round half of the procured paddy had already been moved out of the mandis this time final 12 months, this 12 months slightly greater than a tenth of the procured paddy (10.55% or 8.7 lakh tonnes) has left the mandis. That is glut of paddy within the mandis is slowing down all the procurement course of.
What explains this example in Punjab?
There are three main components at play.
Lack of space for storing: Non-public rice millers are resisting taking in authorities paddy as a result of an area crunch in authorities go-downs. Millers are involved that they’d themselves need to retailer this paddy for a complete 12 months — one thing not many are eager to do.
This drawback emanates from a earlier one. Punjab, this 12 months, may transfer solely 7 lakh tonnes of the roughly 124 lakh tonnes of milled rice in its authorities godowns. This has left little or no area in these godowns to retailer milled rice from this 12 months.
Controversy round hybrids: Including to the issue are sure privately-developed hybrid varieties which have seemingly inundated the market this 12 months. Millers declare that these non-recommended hybrids are accountable for a decrease milling out-turn ratio (OTR) than FCI requirements demand, making them a loss-making proposition.
OTR refers back to the proportion of rice that’s extracted from paddy after the milling course of. Millers need to ship an OTR of 67% per quintal. If the out-turn is decrease, they need to pay thegovernment for the distinction. Millers say that the hybrids in query have an OTR of solely 60% to 62%, resulting in a lack of roughly Rs 300 per quintal .
Troubles from labour, arhtiyas: Arhtiyas (fee brokers) are the middlemen within the grain procurement course of. They’re now demanding a compensation of two.5% on crop buy versus the present system of fastened remuneration of Rs 46 per quintal. Mandi labourers too are looking for increased wages, akin to their counterparts in Haryana. Protests by these teams have additional stalled the procurement course of.
What’s the impression of the delay in paddy procurement?
* Solely 22% of the paddy crop has been harvested to date — roughly 20% lower than final 12 months. Farmers are intentionally slowing down the harvest course of as a result of mandis merely don’t have area to retailer their crop. They hope this might mitigate the danger of misery gross sales attributable to the grain spoiling in poor storage situations.
Nevertheless, the longer paddy stands on the sphere, the better the danger of weight reduction and total high quality deterioration, which too results in a fall in costs. Which means that a persistent delay in paddy procurement will result in important financial misery amongst farmers.
* With farmers sometimes sowing the winter wheat crop in November, a delay in harvesting paddy additionally threatens to throw off the state’s agricultural cycle. This too could be very damaging for the state’s agriculture sector.
Furthermore, a smaller window between harvesting paddy and sowing wheat can be more likely to result in extra stubble fires, which result in air air pollution throughout a lot of North India.
* A chronic disaster may additionally spark unrest amongst farmers. This might shortly spiral right into a regulation and order drawback for the state, which might additional compromise Punjab’s capability to handle the scenario.
How can this disaster be managed?
The federal government urgently wants to seek out non permanent storage options. Probably the most available such answer could be to retailer paddy in Punjab’s 5,000 odd rice mills. However to do that, the federal government should first tackle the millers’ issues which embody OTR trials for hybrid varieties, and stricter regulation of seed certification.
Higher coordination between procurement companies, transportation networks, and storage amenities, in addition to well timed cost of arhtiya commissions, and addressing labour calls for may even assist in enhancing the procurement course of.
In the long run, Punjab should diversify its crop base to keep away from the issue of surplus which lies on the coronary heart of the present disaster.
