Just 5 days to go for procurement to kick off, bumper paddy yield may spell more trouble for Punjab

By Gurpreet Singh Nibber

Punjab is expecting a bumper yield of 230 lakh tonne paddy this kharif season, with harvesting starting in some patches of the state and freshly harvested produce expected to arrive in the mandis by October 1.

The food and civil supplies department, however, is worried due to storage constraints. A total of 175 lakh tonnes of food grain is still stored in the godowns of four state procurement agencies, Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup and state warehousing corporation, and the Centre’s Food Corporation of India, which includes 119 lakh tonne rice, 57 lakh tonnes wheat and 7 lakh tonnes paddy, which on shelling, will add up 4.66 lakh tonnes of rice to the stockpile.

Speaking about the storage capacity, an official of the state food and civil supplies department said that seven lakh tonnes is in the silos, 165 lakh tonnes is stored capacity in the covered godowns and there is an arrangement of about 40 lakh tonnes over the covered area plinths (CAP) storage. The total space is 212 lakh tonnes. In the wake of space shortage, the state supplies department has proposed to store the paddy with the rice millers, to which the millers have objected.

“We cannot store the stocks owned by the government because the quality of food grains depreciates with the passage of time and we cannot own the losses,” said a representative of the rice millers’ association.

The area under paddy this season is 32.20 lakh hectares, which in the previous season was 31.80 hectares.

The Centre’s ministry of food and public distribution has fixed a target to procure 185 lakh tonnes, at a cost of ₹41,339.81 crore, for which a sanction of cash credit limit (CCL) has been granted.

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann held a meeting with the food and civil supplies department officials on Wednesday and also talked to the Union minister for food and public distribution Prahlad Joshi seeking to speed up evacuation of already stored grain stocks. In a message posted on X CM wrote: “The union minister has assured to solve the storage problem.”

Labourers, arhtiyas announce strike

The arhtiyas and mandi labour that supports the procurement operations in 1,836 mandis of the state had announced a strike from October 1, the day the state government starts paddy procurement. The labour is seeking increase in labour charges and arhtiyas are demanding that freshly harvested produce be procured as per the norms otherwise the arhtiyas are made to pay for higher moisture and discoloration percentage.

“We are paid Rs. 12.82 for filling, weighing, stitching and loading of a bag of paddy, the labour is very less as annual increase of 5 to 8 paise is way too litlle,” said Rakesh Tulli.

“Generally, amid fast arrival of the paddy crop, the state procurement agencies have a tendency to ignore the specification of moisture content and discoloured grain. After the procurement, the stocks are kept on arhtiyas’ premises for a few days. With the passage of time, the moisture in the crop falls leading to lesser weight and the state agencies ask the arhtiyas to cover the gap which runs into crores of rupees. So, we have decided to be on strike from October 1 until the issues are resolved,” said arhtiya association president Vijay Kalra.

The rice millers are also objecting to rice content in the hybrid paddy varieties sown in South-west Punjab giving rice quantity of 62% against the norms of 66%. “When paddy is supplied to us for shelling, hybrid varieties are mixed with other varieties leading to confusion and shortage is imposed on us,” said a rice miller.

“We are hopeful of resolving all issues before the start of the procurement,” said the state’s director food and civil supplies Puneet Goel, adding that the procurement is a massive operation and before every season, there are hiccups, which are resolved. Speaking on the hybrid varieties giving less rice content, Goel said the matter pertains agriculture department and Punjab Agricultural University.

This article has been republished from The Hindustan Times.