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Tribune survey (Part-I)
In many areas, paddy is still not ready for harvesting. Though the inflow is expected to improve by the first week of October, advanced sown varieties of paddy have started arriving in the markets at a number of places. At most of the places in the Malwa belt, it is “satha” — paddy that ripens in 60 days — that is coming to the markets. But at other places, other varieties of paddy, too, have started arriving. Even before the formal procurement operations begin, in many areas farmers are being forced to go in for “distress sale” of their kharif produce. The Tribune conducted a random survey of various grain markets in Punjab and Haryana to determine the state of these markets and the preparedness of the procurement agencies. Commission agents in Punjab are a disappointed lot. They say that neither any proper arrangements for drinking water nor for cleaning the grain markets have been made so far. Commission agents at Samana and Patran said that it would have been better if the Deputy Commissioner or senior officers of the Food and Supplies Department had held meetings with them before starting one of the biggest procurement operations of the kharif season. They said that they had not been contacted by anyone so far. No meeting had been held at the field level with the commission agents. Every year a plethora of problems were faced by farmers, commission agents and even by officials of the government procurement agencies. But the government had talked neither to the representatives of farmers and villagers not to the associations of commission agents in the countryside. There are apprehensions in the minds of commission agents. They say that due to this indifferent attitude, especially of the FCI, an impression has gone around among commission agents as well as farmers that procurement agencies will harass farmers during procurement under various pretexts like moisture content, colour of the grain and other conditions laid down regarding the procurement of paddy. They also say that as the government has not liberalised the policy with regard to levy rice, traders and sheller owners will be reluctant to buy paddy. It is not known when the procurement at the rural centres will begin. When a Tribune team visited various rural procurement centres near Samana and Patran, these were totally weed-ridden and even brick-paved market platforms were not visible because of the wild growth. At Kakrala village, a contract was busy making the lighting arrangements at the procurement centre. In the Majha region, private millers have been forcing farmers to resort to the distress sale of their produce. At the Bhagtanwala grain market, farmers incur a loss of Rs 10 lakh a day. Middlemen or commission agents from Jammu, Delhi and Haryana have been frequenting various grain markets to purchase paddy at low rates. Some farmers, as a symbolic protest, may take their produce to Sunam. Mr Narinderjit Singh, Deputy Commissioner, wants the subdivisional officers to supervise all 143 purchase centres from September 21. He wants proper procurement arrangements in the “no-shelling zones” like Khem Karan, Bhikhiwind, Patti, Harike, Ajnala and Ramdass. At the Bhagtanwala market, the daily arrival has reached about 80,000 bags, to aggregate one lakh bags more than the corresponding period last year. The rates for IR-8 are between Rs 370 and Rs 400, Rs 100 less than the MSP. The rates are Rs 350 in Rayya and Rs 398 in Tarn Taran. For “sharbati” (fine quality of paddy), the rates quoted are between Rs 550 and Rs 570.
Mr Jagdev Singh, a former sarpanch of Nagli village, criticised the Punjab Government for delaying the procurement by government agencies. Mr Asa Singh of Varpal village said that he had sold his “sharbati” variety for Rs 700 per quintal last year, but now he was getting less than Rs 600 for it. The procurement process in all 90 mandis in Jalandhar district is all set to begin as the weather has been fair this time. The district is looking for an increase of around 20 per cent in the arrivals of paddy, which totalled 5,21,172 tonnes last year, even as the area under the paddy crop has decreased from 1.33 lakh hectares to 1.30 lakh hectares. While the district administration apprehends space shortage for storing paddy by the FCI, no such problem is likely to be encountered by the state procurement agencies like Punsup, the Warehousing Corporation, the Food and Supplies Department and Markfed. The FCI, with a total procurement share of about 40 per cent, stocks the commodity in its own godowns which also have old stocks. The shortage of wooden crates is another problem in the storing of the crop in the open. Mr K. Shiva Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, said he had directed the procurement agencies to take adequate measures to minimise the problems of farmers. The agencies have also been directed to depute one inspector per procurement centre. Temporary power connections have been provided by the district administration in almost all mandis to enable the commission agents to set up their driers and cleaners, the operations of which will be supervised by the District Mandi Officer. The district administration, in addition to clamping a ban on harvesting operations between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., has made an arrangement according to which a register will be maintained in all mandis to record the name of every farmer and the owner of the combine harvester who had harvested the crop. “We will fine combine to harvester owners if we find that unripe crop has been harvested by them, ” said Mr Prasad. Similarly, to put an end to confusion in the mandis and to ensure that only good quality crop arrives in the market, commission agents have been asked to display placards with details of the firm printed on these, on the heaps of crop to be sold by them. Mr Shiva Prasad said there was no shortage of “bardana” at the moment as all agencies had around one lakh bags which were adequate to meet the requirements. The authorities in Gurgaon have apparently completed the ground work for procurement. The paddy has not yet started arriving in the mandis. The same is the case in Rewari and Mahendragarh district. The reason for this is not far to seek. Gurgaon, like other parts of south Haryana, is not a paddy-growing belt. The records of previous years show that the total arrival of paddy in the mandis in Gurgaon district has been low. According to the District Food and Supplies Controller, Mr S.S. Rana, the grain arrivals in the three mandis in Nuh, Sohna and Punhana in Gurgaon district last season were more than 12,000 tonnes. The authorities this time are expecting a total arrival of 15,000 tonnes. This authorities in Rewari and Mahendragarh districts apprehend a slight fall in the traditionally short supply of paddy. The state government has assigned Hafed the job of procuring the crop on its behalf in this district. The Hafed authorities claim that the necessary arrangements relating to labour, transportation and gunnybags have been made. The authorities had convened a meeting of the rice millers of this district on September 18. The assessment at the meeting was that the millers would again go in for bulk purchases at markets rates. A quick survey revealed that all rice mills in the district are “empty”. This is a ground for optimism. Paddy growers will be one up on the millers as the balance of the dynamics of demand and supply is again in their favour. However, interviews with farmers in paddy-growing areas revealed apprehensions in their minds on the moisture-specification front. Even last year there were allegations by a cross-section of the paddy growers that their produce had been rejected on account of “excess” moisture. Consequently, they had to go in for distress sale. There were also allegations that personnel checked the grain in a haphazard manner. However, the authorities rebut the charges and say that further precautionary measures will be taken so that the farmers do not have any apprehensions on this front. With inputs from Sarbjit Singh (Chandigarh), Varinder Walia (Amritsar), Varinder Singh (Jalandhar) and Ravi S. Singh (Gurgaon). Source:
Tribune News Service Sept 20, 2000
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