CHANDIGARH: With paddy cultivation touching an all-time high of 32.49 lakh hectares in Punjab, the state is once again staring at a procurement and storage crisis this kharif season. Rice millers have declared they will not mill hybrid varieties, even as the Punjab and Haryana HC on Monday struck down the state’s ban on such seeds.
The situation is already tight. As of now, 146 LMT of rice and 77.86 LMT of wheat are stored in Food Corporation of India godowns across Punjab — almost touching the full storage capacity of 180 LMT. With another 190 LMT of paddy expected to arrive in mandis, the state is running out of space.
Millers insist that hybrid paddy is unviable. “The outturn ratio should be 66 per cent, but in hybrids, broken rice is as high as 45 per cent. We have to buy rice at our own cost to meet FCI norms. Why should we suffer?” asked Punjab Rice Industry Association vice-president Ranjit Singh Jossan. The association has demanded that reports prepared by IIT Kharagpur on hybrid varieties last year be made public.
Association chief Bharat Bhushan Binta added that four lakh tonnes of last year’s paddy are still lying with millers. “The government must allow trials of hybrids since FCI specifications allow 25% broken rice,” he said.
Farmers, however, have continued sowing hybrids across Majha, Doaba and even Malwa, lured by higher yields. But with millers refusing to process them, tensions are rising. Unless a solution is worked out, Punjab could see a repeat of last year’s bitter standoff.