Untimely rain in Punjab and millers' strike add to farmers' harvesting woes

BATHINDA/CHANDIGARH/PATIALA: The untimely rainfall that lashed many parts of Punjab and parts of Haryana on Monday morning due to continuation of a western disturbance damaged paddy crop in fields as well procured stocks heaped in the grain markets.

Rain, hail, and thunderstorms lashed the whole of Punjab barring Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. The entire state recorded 5.9 mm rainfall against normal of 0.5mm till 8.30am on Monday, but Ferozepur recorded 16mm, Muktsar 11mm and Bathinda 10.9mm rainfall.

The ready to be harvested standing paddy crop got wet or was flattened at certain places. At some places the rainwater got accumulated in the fields which may further delay the harvesting. Due to floods in July and August, the harvesting is already delayed in some parts of Punjab.

As per the Punjab state agricultural marketing board, 25.01 lakh MT paddy arrived in the grain markets out of which 23.99 lakh MT has been procured (95.92%). But only 8.23 lakh MT has been lifted and over 65% of procured crop, major part of it which is lying in the open, is prone to being impacted by rain.

Rain likely to delay harvesting by 2 days in Punjab, says agri official

Movement of food grains from the mandis has also been hit due to millers boycotting the procurement operations. The lifting process was disrupted at various places, resulting in farmers’ grain lying in the open in mandis. In Nabha grain market, Amarjit Singh, a farmer, said that due to the strike by rice millers, paddy stocks were not being lifted.“The farmers are facing inconvenience.

The grain market is brimming to its capacity even though almost 70% of the paddy crop is yet to be harvested… The state government should make efforts to end the strike,” he said.In district Patiala, there were reports of flattening of paddy crops due to strong winds and rains on Monday morning in villages including Wazirpur, Barsat and Shahbazpur. At many places, the farmers had gone for re-cultivation after their paddy crop was damaged due floods in July and they are yet to harvest their crop. Meanwhile, the deadlock with the rice millers continued as the Punjab Rice Industry Association continued with its strike on Monday.

Ranjit Singh Jossan, vice president of the association said the strike was against the Centre’s directions that fortified rice will be taken from Punjab with the condition that if its nutritional value is found to be less or more than the prescribed standard, the concerned rice miller would take back that rice from the warehouse of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and replace it with new rice.

“With this decision of FCI, there has been a stir in Punjab's rice mills… Punjab is a major contributor in rice and wheat given to 80 crore BPL families. Since the millers of Punjab are on strike against the FCI's decision, the millers are not storing paddy in their mills until the decision is with drawn,” he said. Referring to the impact of the rain, chief agriculture officer, Patiala, Gurnam Singh, said, “The affected paddy crops may see discolouration. The harvesting of the crops is likely to get delayed by two days or more”. Meanwhile, the farmers and Mandi board are worried over the increasing paddy stocks at the grain markets and tardy lifting. Ajaypal Singh, DMO Patiala said, "The rain may lead to an increase in the moisture content of the paddy, but it will reduce within 2-3 days with the sunlight." BKU Krantikari leader Ranjit Singh rued that the tardy lifting would hit timely payment to farmers.