Punjab, Haryana farmers resent delay in start of paddy procurement

Centre says delay necessary as moisture content high due to excess Sep rains

Amid the ongoing debate over the three farm acts, farmers of Punjab and Haryana are again on a warpath with the Centre, this time over the delayed start to the annual paddy procurement season.

Usually, procurement of paddy from the two major north Indian states starts from October 1, but this year the Centre in an order issued few days said that procurement will start from October 11 in both the states as the moisture content is paddy is above the permissible limits in both the states due to prolonged monsoon showers in September.

However, farmers’ leaders have termed the decision arbitrary as in many cases farmers have already started bringing their paddy into the mandis for procurement and will now have to wait for almost 10 days for the purchases to start.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, terming the decision as a joke, said that many farmers have already brought their produce to mandis in the state, so the government should now tell them "what to do with this crop and where to take it."

On Friday, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, in his maiden visit to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of delayed procurement and was assured an early resolution.

Punjab along with neighbouring Haryana, are among the major paddy producing states and in 2020-21 procurement season, both the states contributed around 30 percent of the country's annual rice procurement of 59.58 million tonnes (till September 27).

The Central government in a statement said that procurement had to be delayed as rainfall in Punjab was 77 per cent above normal in Punjab while it was 139 per cent above normal in Haryana, which is why the government of Haryana wrote to the food ministry to delay the procurement dates.

It said Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) regional offices did a status check and found that paddy samples were having 18-22 per cent moisture levels in Punjab and 18.2-22.7 per cent in Haryana against the permissible limit of 17 per cent.

“Procurement of paddy at high moisture content is fraught with risk of increase in damage percentage of rice grain and also the grain becomes vulnerable to shriveling, blackening and discoloration which might lead to rejection at procurement forcing farmers to sell their paddy at distress,” the Centre clarified.

It said a better option for farmers will be to harvest the paddy after 10 days and let the excess dry up in fields which will smoothen the procurement and minimize rejections due to low quality.

Sugar industry should focus on new tech to meet ethanol demand: Food Secy
 

The sugar industry should now look beyond its immediate blending target of 2025 and focus on newer technologies as the journey of ethanol blending has just started, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said.

Speaking at a webinar on the future of the sugar sector, organized by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), Pandey said in the 2020-21 sugar season that ended yesterday around 2 million tonnes of sugar was diverted towards ethanol while in 2021-22 around 3.4 million tonnes will get diverted. The Centre, also in a move to encourage more diversion of sugar towards ethanol, has decided to grant mills the entire quantity of sugar diverted in their monthly release quote.