Rice millers' strike stalls paddy procurement

The farmers of Punjab who managed to harvest a good paddy crop despite the deficit monsoon are in a Catch-22 situation due to a deadlock between the rice millers and the Government of India.

Over 3,200 mills refused to process the paddy lying in various grain markets for they demanded relaxation in moisture and discolouration quotient.

Punjab contributes 90-100 metric tonne (MT) rice every year for the Central pool. There has been a pending stock of 7 MT of paddy which the millers did not lift due to the quality issue.

President of Rice Millers’ Association of Punjab said that they demanded relaxation for PAU 201 variety of rice. He added that the production of PAU 201 increased from 10% to 40% in the past one year.

The probability of discolouration and damage was higher in this variety, he said. They wanted the permissible limit of damage and discolouration to be revised from 3% to 5%.

Another reason for the slow lifting of paddy is that the government announced the specifications for rice in mid-December last year, so the private millers are averse to start procuring early.

The millers also demanded a third party laboratory in the state to challenge the verdict of FCI on the quality of rice.

Food and supply minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon is assumed to be in touch with the officials in the Ministry of Agriculture to resolve the issues.

“The interests of arhtiyas and millers are better watched by the Government in Punjab,” said Bhupinder Singh Mann, national president of Bhartiya Kisan Union.

Due to the lack of post harvest infrastructure, the farmers cannot retain the crop for days and started indulging in distress sale at various mandis.

There have been reports of some millers buying paddy @ Rs 850 per quintal against the minimum support price of Rs 980 per quintal.