CHANDIGARH: Despite paddy being sown in the state in an area of 32.49 lakh hectares -the highest area under cultivation in the past couple of decades- Punjab is likely to face paddy procurement crisis during this kharif marketing season, like last year.
The reason: rice millers have declared that they will not mill the hybrid varieties of paddy.
Only on Monday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had quashed the state government's blanket ban on hybrid varieties.
Punjab Rice Industry Association (PRIA) Vice President Ranjit Singh Jossan told TNIE that the farmers would be hit as rice millers will not mill the hybrid varieties.
"Why should we suffer? The outturn ratio of paddy is 66 per cent but the broken rice in hybrid varieties is 43 to 45 per cent. So, millers have to buy rice from the market at their own cost and give the 66 per cent milled rice to the government," he said.
Further Ranjit Singh Jossan added that last year his association PRIA, with the backing of the Punjab government, asked the Centre to physically test hybrid paddy at IIT Kharagpur. The IIT teams processed the samples at three rice mills and prepared reports. But despite repeated requests, the reports were not made public.
"Now, with a crisis looming, we demand that the reports be released and the Central government compensate the industry for the losses caused by hybrid seed varieties," he demanded.
Punjab Rice Industry Association President Bharat Bhusan Binta affirmed that there should be a trial of the hybrid variety as the specification of Food Corporation of India (FCI) is 25 per cent broken rice.
"Till date, approximately four lakh tonnes of paddy is still lying with the millers in their facilities," Binta noted.
Sources in the state food civil supply department said that as on Tuesday, 146 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of rice lie in the godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI) across the state. This is not including the wheat. Together they will come to 179 LMT of rice and wheat. But the total storage capacity of godowns is 180 LMT. With around 190 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy expected to arrive in the mandis this season, once again there might be revived tensions over procurement, storage and financial viability for the state’s rice industry.
Last year, after a a month long standoff between farmers, the government and the rice industry, the millers had agreed to mill the hybrid paddy varieties after imposing cuts on the price paid to farmers cultivating these varieties. The millers welcomed the decision to mill the hybrid paddy varieties by imposing cuts to compensate for the spoilage rates of 45 to 50 per cent.
Later, rice millers in the state went on a prolonged strike demanding a ban on hybrid paddy seeds, citing huge losses due to excessive breakage during milling. Following this, the Punjab government banned both hybrid seeds. The government also announced that such varieties would not be purchased under the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Despite the earlier ban, hybrid paddy has been widely sown in Punjab this year, especially in the Majha and Doaba regions, with expansion reported in Malwa.
In Majha, the area under hybrid varieties has gone up substantially, mainly because hybrid varieties offer higher yields to farmers. However, millers insist they will not process hybrid varieties. They argue that milling hybrid paddy produces only 55 to 57 per cent head rice compared to the standard 67 per cent, with a very high percentage of broken rice forcing them to buy additional rice at higher prices to meet their contracts.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday set aside the state government’s order of April 7, which had imposed a blanket ban on the use of hybrid paddy seeds in the state. The court said the order does not withstand the test of legality, as the state could not prohibit the use of varieties duly notified by the Union Government under the Seeds Act of 1966.
The court upheld the administrative orders of April 4 and April 10, 2019, which had restricted the use of non-notified hybrid seeds while permitting the notified varieties.
Leader of the Opposition and senior congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa demanded that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government treat the issue with utmost seriousness and address it as an urgent priority.
"The Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already advanced paddy procurement, moving the commencement date from October 1 to September 15. The government must act without delay. With procurement set to begin in less than a month, timely intervention is essential,” Bajwa asserted.
He held the government directly responsible for the heavy losses suffered by farmers during the last paddy procurement season. Despite the Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee, many farmers were forced to sell their produce below MSP due to the government's failure to enforce procurement norms.
“In multiple districts, farmers received only Rs 1,700 to Rs 2,100 per quintal for their produce, even though it was officially billed at the MSP of Rs 2,300 per quintal by procurement agencies during the 2024 season. This was the largest scam in Punjab’s agricultural history, and shockingly, it remains uninvestigated,” Bajwa stated.