As millers complain, expert panel set up to study poor yield of key paddy variety

By Jitendra Choubey

The Centre has constituted a committee of experts from the IIT-Kharagpur to review the paddy variety PR-126 after receiving complaints, especially from Punjab’s rice millers, about relatively lesser rice yield, officials said.

The PR-126 variety, adopted in Punjab on a large scale since 2016, has been giving 67% of out turn ratio (OTR) from paddy to rice. However, this year Punjab’s rice millers complained that PR-126 has been giving 4-5% less OTR. Rice millers claim that the paddy variety comes with an intrinsic defect of broken grains, resulting in lesser rice yield of around 5 kg per quintal.

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi said, “There were no complaints related to PR-126 variety since its adoption in 2016. It is understood that complaints are now being made because of a rise in hybrid varieties that are marketed in the name of PR-126 in Punjab.

”The Centre said a study was assigned to IIT-Kharagpur for reviewing the present OTR of the paddy variety. “Tests are being conducted in different rice-procuring states including Punjab,” said Sanjeev Chopra, secretary of the department of food and public distribution.

Being a short-duration variety, PR-126 matures in just 125 days and requires less water. But millers say it is often ready in 110 days, resulting in a rice production ratio of 62 to 64 kg. Lesser rice yield is forcing mill owners to absorb the loss as the Centre demands the full quota of 67 kg per quintal of paddy.

Meanwhile, the government has denied any crisis of storage capacity of paddy or rice as procurement is delayed compared to previous year. In Punjab, a large number of farmers have lined up at procurement centres with their paddy. As on October 26, the government procured 54.5 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy against 61.5 LMT last year.

This article has been republished The New Indian Express