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| Punjab, Haryana target to lift 159 lakh tonne paddy for central pool |
| Press Trust Of India / New Delhi/ Chandigarh Sep 28, 2009, 00:31 IST |
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Punjab and Haryana are looking at procuring 1,59,000 tonnes of paddy for the central pool during the 2009-10 kharif marketing season, which commences tomorrow amid fears of lower paddy output due to erratic monsoon.
The paddy procurement for the central pool in the last season stood at around 1,53,000 tonnes (LT). With the Centre advancing the date of procurement to September 28 following requests of Punjab and Haryana, both the states have put in place all the required arrangements for smooth paddy lifting.
Punjab has established 1,555 procurement centres across all grain markets for paddy lifting, while Haryana has set up 181 lifting centres in mandis, official sources said.
As part of procurement arrangements, Punjab would arrange 8,30,000 gunny bales for paddy lifting. “7,50,000 gunny bales would be arranged by state government and the remaining 80,000 gunny bales would be arranged by FCI,” Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Director D S Grewal said.
Haryana has also placed orders for 1.23 lakh gunny bales for paddy crop. Punjab is expected to contribute 137 lakh tonnes of paddy for the central pool against 131.50 lakh MT lifted last season.
“Of 137 LT, 127 lakh tonnes is expected to be lifted by FCI and state-owned procurement agencies while rest will be bought by rice millers,” a senior FCI official said today.
Haryana is expected to lift 22 LT of paddy for the central pool this season as was same in the last season. “FCI and state agencies will buy 17 lakh tonnes and remaining will be lifted by private millers,” an official said.
To ward off the problem of food grain storage in the state, FCI this season is emphasising on making available adequate covered space for storing rice through speedy movement of earlier stock of grains including wheat.
“We do not think that there should be any problem in storing rice as both states will have adequate space following the speedy movement of earlier food grain stocks,” an official said.
Punjab and Haryana have covered storage capacity of 87 lakh tonnes and 41.62 lakh tonnes, respectively.
During kharif marketing season, it will be interesting to see whether both states face any shortfall in crop arrival due to dip in area under cultivation because of deficient rains that marred the kharif season this year.
Haryana has seen a reduction of 1.20 lakh hectares in area under paddy crop which settled at 10.90 lakh hectares against 12.10 lakh hectares in last year.
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