M A I N   N E W S

Farmers, arhtiyas suffer as confusion prevails
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

In Khanna market, about 10 lakh quintals of paddy has been sold till date and in Morinda, 1.22 lakh quintals.

Confusion also prevails over whether the farmers who have sold their paddy to private traders are entitled for drought relief or not. So, farmers are reluctant to sell paddy to private traders, fearing denial of drought relief in such cases. If this confusion is cleared by the government, then pressure on government procurement agencies will decrease.

Farmers and commission agents want that the drought relief and bonus announced by the government should be paid along with the payment to be made for the paddy bought on minimum support price from October 1 this year. However, government agencies say that they have no such instructions.

In fact, certain commission agents had submitted their bills to procurement agencies by adding Rs 20 per quintal (drought relief) in the MSP (Rs 560 per quintal for grade-A variety of paddy), but procurement agencies have rejected the claim for Rs 20 and are only paying at the rate of Rs 560.

They say that even payment at the rate of MSP has been delayed. Mr Sadhu Ram, former president of the local arhtiyas association, said since October 1 no payment had been made. However, certain commission agents said that today the Warehouse Corporation made payment to them against the bills submitted to it till October 5.

Mr Harbans Singh Rosh, President of the local ahartiyas association, said the payment of Rs 20 per quintal to be made by the Union Government and Rs 10 per quintal by the state government should be cleared along with the other payment made to farmers for procurement of their paddy. He said it would not be in the interest of farmers and the government to delay such payment. He claimed that the procurement operation was going smoothly. But there are many in local market who did not agree with this claim.

Commission agents say that the rejection by the procurement agencies of the paddy heaps containing eye-catching presence of black grains was quite high (up to 15 per cent). Agencies have been rejecting such heaps of paddy. Farmers have to resort to distress sale of such paddy. It is selling between Rs 450 and Rs 520, depending on the quality. However, private traders have also been buying paddy at Rs 561 per quintal, that is Re 1 above the MSP.

In spite of the drought, the average yield of paddy is around 25 quintals per acre, which is as good as in the previous years.

Mr Kashmir Singh, who has come here from Dialpura village, near Phillaur, Mr Sarabjit Singh from Jargari village, Mr Harpal Singh from Kalara village and Mr Gurmeet Singh from Rasulpur village, near Morinda, say that there was an additional expenditure incurred, compared to previous years, to the tune of Rs 3,500 per acre on paddy because of drought. However, where tubewells became redundant, the extra expenditure was much more.