Tardy lifting leaves little space for fresh paddy arrivals

Heavy paddy arrivals, coupled with tardy lifting, have left grain markets with little space for fresh arrivals in Ambala, forcing farmers to wait for hours to offload their produce.

As per data, over 2.65 lakh MT stocks have arrived at 15 grain markets and purchase centres of the district, of which 1.73 lakh MT was procured by agencies till Monday evening. Of the total procured stocks, nearly 32 per cent has been lifted from the grain markets and purchase centres.

The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department has purchased 85,428 MT, of which 33.86 per cent stock was lifted; Hafed has purchased 81,851 MT, of which 30.26 per cent was lifted; while the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation has purchased only 5,769 MT, of which 25.79 per cent was lifted.

Nearly 85 per cent payment has been cleared by the procurement agencies against the lifting till Monday evening. The payment against procurement was around 27.3 per cent.

A farmer from Shahpura village, Nathu Singh, said, “Lack of space has been a major issue this year. There is no space to dry produce, and even the grain markets are choked. The government should do something about it, so that the farmers don’t have to wait to sell their produce and the payments are also cleared in time.”

Similarly, Mewa Singh, another farmer, said, “I have been waiting to offload my produce because my commission agent has no space in the grain market due to poor lifting. We can’t blame the government entirely because the agencies will procure produce with 17 per cent moisture, but there are stocks with over 20 per cent moisture.”

Neeraj Bhardwaj, secretary of the Ambala Cantt grain market, said, “The arrivals have been on the heavy side. Efforts are on to improve it. The farmers are requested to bring produce after properly drying and cleaning it.”

DC Parth Gupta said, “The agencies have been directed to improve lifting. If negligence comes to light, action will be taken.”