UP farmers reap bumper profit of higher basmati prices in Haryana mandis
By Neeraj Mohan
As per the reports, the farmers from UP, who have grown early variety of paddy Basmati Pusa 1509, are making the most of the increase in prices by selling their produce in the mandis in Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat and Yamunanagar districts.
Farmers from the border districts of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Bijnor and Baghpat in UP are making a beeline for mandis in Haryana.
The farmers get ₹3,000 per quintal of paddy which they say is a good sign as the price may increase in the days to come following the demand in international and domestic markets.
Pankaj Kumar, a farmer from Saharanpur in UP, said that this is for the second consecutive year that the prices of Pusa 1509 have increased beyond ₹3,000 as last year also, the prices were around ₹3,200 per quintal in July and by the end of August increased to ₹3,500.
According to officials of Karnal mandi, the arrival of paddy started on June 20 and till date, around 1 lakh quintal paddy has already been sold in the Karnal grain market alone.
Sompal, an arhtiya of Karnal grain market, said that there are no restrictions of early sowing of paddy in UP due to which the harvesting of paddy begins in the last week of June in that state and due to the lack of big mandis in UP, they prefer to sell their produce in Haryana.
The farmers said that most of the farmers in western UP and Yamuna belt grow two paddy crops in one kharif season, which help them harvest three crops in a year.
“We had grown paddy in the first week of April which is being harvested now. Not only the price, but the yield is also good this year and we earned around ₹70000 per acre and now we have enough time to grow another crop of paddy which takes only three months in maturing and the next crop will be harvested in October, when harvesting of paddy will start in Haryana,” said Ankit Kumar, a farmer of Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh.
The farmers from UP coming to sell their produce in Haryana said that due to lack of big mandis in their home state, they have to travel around 100km to sell their produce in Haryana as there are small purchase centres in UP, but big traders do not buy directly from farmers.
Ajaib Singh, a commission agent, said that since the land is cheaper in UP and there are no restrictions on early sowing of paddy, farmers from Haryana have also purchased land in Uttar Pradesh and they sell their produce in Haryana mandis to get good price.
This article has been republished from The Hindustan Times