Only 4.3% of procured paddy lifted, Punjab mandis packed
Mandis in Punjab are overflowing with paddy as only 4.3% of the procured rice has been sent to millers, primarily due to millers’ reluctance to accept PR-126 and hybrid varieties. Despite state procurement reaching 2.6 LMT, only 11,090 metric tonnes have been lifted. Arhtiyas (commission agents) are threatening to stop buying if the situation doesn’t improve. Millers are concerned about low yields and unaddressed demands in the state’s custom milling policy, leading to a potential halt in rice processing.
Chandigarh: Mandis in Punjab are nearly packed with paddy, as only 4.3% of unprocessed rice procured by food agencies has been lifted and sent to the millers, shows data uploaded on the website of Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board.With paddy arrivals picking up in the state, grain markets, especially in Malwa region, are fast overflowing with paddy due to tardy lifting.
This is because rice millers are still reluctant to accept fresh produce of PR-126 and hybrid varieties. Threatening to stop further purchase of produce, one faction of arhtiyas (commission agents) would discuss their roadmap at a meeting with farmers’ groups and mandi labour on Friday. Even though arhtiyas and mandi labour had agreed to participate in the procurement exercise two days ago, a majority of rice millers are not willing to accept paddy for milling out of fear of suffering losses.
As a consequence, while total paddy arrivals reached 3.3 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) by Thursday and procurement reached 2.6 LMT, only 11,090 metric tonnes of the stocks had been lifted. The lifted paddy is just 4.3% of the crop that has been procured and 3.3% of the crop that has arrived.Farmers coming to mandis would begin to feel the pinch if lifting doesn’t pick in coming days.Puneet Kumar Jain, an arhtiya from Banur, said his local grain market was running out of space. “We will wait for one more day and if there is no lifting, we will stop purchasing fresh stocks. Mandi labour is back for loading and unloading. Rice millers have not entered into any agreements. State govt has been purchasing fresh stocks, but there is zero movement out of the mandis,” he said.
The grain market in Phagwara too could be overflowing with food grains soon. Kulwant Singh, district president of Kapurthala Arhtiyas’ Association, said, “Local rice millers have gone on strike till Oct 14. As a result, there is no lifting of stocks in Phagwara grain market. If it continues, mandis will close down.”Ravinder Singh Cheema, president of Punjab Arhtiyas’ Association, said paddy purchase had again been stopped in most grain markets on Thursday, and farmers’ unions, arhtiyas’ associations and mandi labour unions would hold a meeting on Friday to decide the next course of action. “In the interest of farmers, arhtiyas had been participating in purchase of paddy.
But, without timely lifting, there would soon be chaos in grain markets, and it would create problems for farmers as well,” he said.On the other hand, Gurpreet Singh, a rice miller from Ferozepur, said apart from confusion over PR-126 and hybrid varieties, state govt had also not implemented millers’ demands in the recently finalised custom milling policy pertaining to waiving refundable security and property lien. “We will soon hold a meeting and discuss the issue,” he said.Grain markets in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Fazilka and Tarn Taran have godowns with higher storage to accommodate more stocks, but mandis in Banur, Rajpura and Phagwara have limited capacity.According to millers, “lower than specified” out-turn ratio of PR-126 would force them to buy rice from open market at their own cost. Sources said that so far, around 1,500 of 5,000 rice millers in Punjab have come on board to accept paddy stocks. State govt is hopeful that at least 3,000 millers would join in, which would help tide over the problem.
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