High moisture content delays arrival of paddy in mandis

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, October 2

The paddy procurement season has already started in the state from October 1, but not much arrival has been recorded yet. The farmers who are bringing their produce to the mandis are worried because they are facing issues like high moisture content. Till today, a total of 2,325 metric tonnes of paddy had arrived in as many as 13 mandis. There are a total of 80 mandis in the district. Notably, a target of 10.50 lakh MT of paddy has been fixed in Jalandhar.

As per the information, the prescribed limit of moisture is 17 per cent, but moisture content up to 20 per cent has been recorded from Jalandhar mandis. Yesterday, private traders purchased 15 MT of paddy, but no purchase was recorded today.

A farmer Paramjit Singh had come to the mandi with a trolley filled with paddy produce. “The arhtiya here told me that my produce had high moisture content. So, I kept it under the sun so that it gets dried,” the farmer said.

Chairman of Arhtiya Association Harjit Singh Kalra said that because of erratic weather conditions, high moisture content was being seen in the paddy grain. “Not many farmers have arrived in the market yet because they would first ensure that the grain gets dried up,” he said.

The usual hustle and bustle is missing from the mandis, but in the coming few days, paddy is expected to arrive in large quantities. The grain markets have already been allocated to various government procurement agencies like PUNSUP, Warehouse, Markfed and FCI.