Rana Gurjeet Singh raise concerns over tardy paddy procurement during kharif harvest
Kanwar Inder singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ December 4,2024
Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh asked for resolving all issues that caused troubles for farmers in getting their paddy produce procured in the kharif harvest season that has just ended.
Raising concerns over the matter, the legislator said that farmers work hard and toil to grow the crop and it is distressing for him when problems arise at the time of selling the crop. “The farmers have a very short window between paddy harvest and wheat cultivation so his kharif produce be procured immediately on reaching the mandis”, suggested Rana Gurjeet Singh.
Congratulating the farmers and state agencies for bringing down farm fires considerably in this season he however raised concerns over fall in total paddy arrivals in the mandis which at the opening of the season in October month was expected to touch 185 lakh metric tonne but by the end 174 lakh metric tonne have arrived. “The government need to find out where has 11 lakh metric tonne evaporated as it is direct loss to farmers”, adds the legislator.
As per the crop cutting experiments conducted by the agriculture department it was a bumper crop but arrivals doesn’t narrate the same story, he said.
According to the MLA in future all issues with rice millers be resolved in advance unlike in the current season when the government struggled to sign contracts with them for milling of rice. “Now the government needs to focus on movement of paddy and wheat stocks of the previous seasons be moved out of the state at a faster pace so that adequate space be created in the godowns to store rice from milling of the paddy.
According to the MLA Punjab has storage capacity of 175 lakh metric tonnes and atleast 150 lakh tonnes of foodgrains are still stored in the godowns. “Where would the fresh rice stocks be stored”, added the legislator and raised concern that incase the similar situation continued wheat procurement and lifting will also be tardy.
While cautioning the state agencies against sowing of hybrid paddy varieties promoted by unscrupulous dealers which was a major cause of troubled procurement season as rice millers complained of fall in rice yield less than the permissible limits of 67%.
He suggested that Punjab Agricultural University and state agriculture department should make sure that farmers are supplied genuine seeds of certified and approved varieties.
“If rice output is low who would pay for the losses incurred by the rice millers”, asked Rana Gurjeet Singh.
Rana Gurjeet Singh raise concerns over tardy paddy procurement during kharif harvest. Due to messy procurement this season the farmers delayed harvest of paddy crop which led to fall in moisture levels critical for the yield load. “In the end only farmers have suffered”, he said in dismay, asking the government to make arrangements in advance for the upcoming procurements so that in the farmers are not made to bear the brunt of the system failure.
