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Paddy arrival picks pace in Haryana mandis
Even government agencies are scheduled to start procurement and lifting operations of parmal rice from October, but paddy lying in Haryana mandis has already been procured at MSP of ₹2,040 per quintal
The arrival of paddy in Haryana mandis gained momentum with the harvesting operations resuming in the state after the weeklong rains.
According to farmers, the rains have delayed the harvesting operations for more than a week and now harvesting will be at its peak in the next few days as most of the early maturing varieties of basmati and PR paddy are ready for harvesting.
Even government agencies are scheduled to start the procurement and lifting operations of parmal rice from October, but the paddy lying in mandis has already been procured at the minimum support price of ₹2,040 per quintal following a protest by the farmers last week. They said that the registration on the ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ portal is mandatory to sell parmal paddy on the MSP, allowing the farmers to sell 28 to 30 quintals for the registration of one acre.
As per officials from the state food, supplies and consumer affairs department, this year the government has set a target to procure 55 lakh MT of parmal paddy from 400 mandis of the state from October 1 to November 15. Officials monitoring the procurement operations believe that around 30-40% of the total 13.5 lakh hectares under paddy in the state will be harvested in the next two weeks and this may create a glut in the mandis if the pending stock is not lifted from the mandis.
“Though the government had allowed rice millers to purchase the paddy already arrived in the mandis, it should have also allowed us to lift the procured paddy so that mandi could be cleared before October 1,” said a Kurukshetra-based rice miller.
However, mandi officials said the lifting will start only after the procurement will start officially from October 1 and they cannot allow lifting before October 1 as they have to follow Central norms.
“We cannot allow lifting of the procured paddy till we follow the proper procedure issued by the procurement agencies,” said Jasbir Singh, secretary, Pipli Grain market in Kurukshetra district.
On the other hand, farmers said the rains have flattened the crops and this will increase harvesting costs by the machines.
“More than 10% of the paddy would have been harvested so far, but the rains affected the harvesting operations. Now we have resumed harvesting and it will be at the peak in the next few days as we have advance bookings for the next 15 days,” said Karnal’s Sandeep Tyagi, who owns three combine harvesters.
