15% paddy deficit this season, 99% procured, 82% lifted

In what appears to be a sign of low yield, almost 15 per cent less paddy as compared to corresponding period last year has arrived in grain markets across the district this season so far even as the kharif marketing season draws close to an end.

While almost 99 per cent of the arrived grains had been procured and 82 per cent of the same had already been lifted, farmers had been paid Rs 3,418 crore, which was 99 per cent of the total due payments, for their crop in Ludhiana till Tuesday.

Not only the arrival this season so far was almost 86 per cent of the last year’s arrival, 15,50,908 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy that had yet arrived across 146 mandis, including 38 temporary yards, under 13 market committees in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, was also around 84 per cent of the total crop expected to arrive here.

While the Central agency, Food Corporation of India (FCI), had remained away by procuring not even a single grain so far, the private purchase of paddy has also remained dismal with commission agents (arhtiyas) procuring mere 0.02 per cent of the total procured foodgrains despite the government’s assurance to increase their commission.

Claiming that the situation has been completely normal after facing initial hiccups, District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) Geeta Bishambu told The Tribune here on Wednesday that lifting has picked up pace with almost 82 per cent of the total procured paddy already been cleared from mandis.

She said the district administration in close coordination with the Food and Civil Supplies Department and the four state-owned procurement agencies had been ensuring swift procurement and timely payments to the farmers for their procured stocks.

“We have been able to purchase almost 99 per cent of the total paddy that had arrived in our mandis so far and have paid up to 99 per cent of the payments due to the peasants,” Geeta said.

She said 15,31,836 MT of the total arrived 15,50,908.3 MT of paddy had been procured in the district while Rs 3,417.8 crore had already been paid to the farmers, which was almost 99 per cent of Rs 3,467 crore payments due within 48 hours of the purchase.

On the lifting front, 12,54,647.8 MT of the procured 15,31,836 MT paddy had been lifted from the mandis, which comprised 85.1 per cent of 14,74,500.4 MT stocks due to be lifted within the last 72 hours of the purchase.

On Tuesday, 15,015.9 MT of more paddy arrived in the mandis while 17,042.9 MT was purchased and 37,440 MT was lifted during the day. “It shows the swift pace of lifting as more than double the daily purchase was cleared from the mandis during the past 24 hours,” the DFSC said.

Barring 379.4 MT paddy purchased by arhtiyas, rest of the stocks had been procured by Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup, and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC).

The DFSC detailed that of the total 497 rice shellers in the district, 494 had applied for storage, 493 had already been allotted stocks after they had signed the agreements for storage and milling of procured paddy. “Since godowns have been almost cleared of the milled rice of the previous season, the lifting is in full swing,” Geeta added.

Besides the parmal variety of paddy, 43,354 MT of basmati rice had also arrived and fully procured in the district till Tuesday. The growers had fetched as high as Rs 3,145 per quintal and as low as Rs 2,670 per quintal for the basmati so far.

On the harvesting front, 2,51,079 hectares, which accounted for 97.9 per cent of the total 2,56,500 hectares of area under paddy in the district, had been harvested so far.

According to the data compiled by the Agriculture Department, the Ludhiana block had harvested 12,870 of 13,200 hectares of paddy, Mangat 30,096.6 of 30,900 hectares, Pakhowal 21,408 of 22,300 hectares, Sudhar 28,322 of 28,900 hectares, Jagraon 30,674 of 31,300 hectares, Sidhwan Bet 32,700.6 of 33,300 hectares, Khanna 19,492.2 of 19,600 hectares, Doraha 18,333 of 18,900 hectares, Dehlon 19,738.2 of 20,100 hectares, Samrala 13,959 of 14,100 hectares and Machhiwara had reaped 23,422 of the total 23,900-hectare area under paddy till date.