'Basmati paddy to fetch high price this season'

Prices of Basmati paddy are expected to touch their highest level of Rs 3,400 per quintal during the forthcoming harvesting season, says a research report.

The prices of traditional Basmati paddy are in the range of Rs 2,650-3,350 per quintal this month, and are expected to be Rs 2,500-3,200 per quintal in Novemeber.

In December, however, they will go up to Rs 2,700-3,400 per quintal, depending on the varieties, the report said.

The forecast has been made by the agricultural economics department of G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, the varsity said in a statement today. 

The objective of the project is to make price forecast of selected agriculture commodities during harvesting.

Scientists have advised the farmers to take marketing and storage decisions of their produce of traditional Basmati paddy well in advance in view of the price they will fetch.

A team of scientists working under a national agriculture innovation project, "Establishing and networking of market intelligence centres in India", conducted a survey at Rudrapur regulated market, a major market for traditional Basmati paddy in Uttarakhand, and analysed the price data that prevailed for the last 15 years.

West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Orissa, Karnataka, Assam and Haryana are the major paddy producing states in the India.