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TN, Bengal to pitch in for paddy loss in region
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20
With the floods affecting paddy production in Punjab and Haryana, the Centre is looking at Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to ensure high procurement of rice in the 2010-11 kharif marketing season (KMS).

Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, which are expected to achieve significant production of paddy, are expected to make up for the loss of paddy from Punjab and Haryana. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has already stated that the paddy production was expected to go down by 15 per cent this year on account of large-scale damage to the crop in Haryana and Punjab because of the floods.

Initially, the government was expecting the paddy production to touch 100 million tonne in the 2010-2011 KMS. In Haryana, paddy crop on 2.59 lakh hectares has been damaged, while in Punjab the crop standing on 2.60 lakh hectares has been ruined. With the fields still inundated and no time left for fresh sowing on non-basmati nurseries (procured by the government), the paddy production in the two states is expected to fall. Farmers in the two states are already making preparations for replanting their fields with basmati varieties.

Though the government has not yet worked out on how much the production will fall because of the floods, a meeting of food secretaries of all states has been called on July 27 to assess the estimated production of rice this year. Talking to TNS here today, Siraj Hussain, chairman and managing director, Food Corporation of India, said though the paddy production would be hit in the two states, they were expecting to buy good quantities from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

“The paddy production had been hit last year too because of the drought. As against 99.15 million tonne of rice produce in 2008-09 KMS, the rice production in 2009-10 KMS was 89.39 million tonne. But this year, we are hoping that the high production in West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu will make up for the loss in Punjab and Haryana,” he said.