Unsold paddy rotting in mandis, Punjab farmers say Centre ‘punishing us’. Mann govt says all’s well

Farmers say they've been camping at mandis for 15-20 days with no buyers. Rice mills blame procurement delays on lack of storage space, as warehouses still hold last year’s stock.

A farmer flattens mounds of paddy at a mandi in Mansa | Photo: Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

Mansa, Punjab: Children of Khaira Kalan Village in Punjab’s Mansa district are unable to play at the local sports ground, since it has doubled up as a mandi, piled high with farmers’ unsold paddy stock.

“Since we were unable to sell paddy to rice millers over the past few days, there’s no space to store it in the mandi, we’ve had to rent out the nearby playground,” a middleman at the mandi told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

Punjab’s paddy seems to have no takers this year. Even though rice does not feature significantly in Punjab’s foods, the state is among the largest rice-producing states in the country. The water intensive crop is also blamed for causing the rapid groundwater level depletion in the state, and the burning of its straw is blamed for choking Delhi and other states every year. Yet, rice remains a popular crop for the farmers of Punjab because of its consistency and almost 100 percent procurement by the Centre at minimum support price (MSP) every year.

This year, the procurement woes have largely been blamed on lack of space in Punjab’s warehouses which are yet to get rid of last year’s stock. But stakeholders—including rice millers, middlemen and farmers—and even economists are blaming the central government for meting out step-fatherly treatment to the farmers of Punjab.

Farmers have been camping at the Mansa mandi for over 2 weeks, unable to get MSP on their paddy | Photo: Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

“Even till September of this year, they couldn’t move last year’s stocks from warehouses… The Centre does not want the state to prosper,” Shamlal Dhalewan, Mansa district president of Rice Millers’ Association, said to ThePrint.

The feeling among farmers and farmer unions is that this is the central government’s way of ‘punishing’ Punjab’s farmers for protesting against the farm laws. They have staged protests at the houses of ministers and MLAs, demonstrated a ‘rail roko’ andolan on 13 October, and have currently captured 25 toll booths across the state.

“Punjab had protested against the three farm laws and the Centre is now exacting revenge. The government loves corporations and wants us to leave farming…that is why they’re not buying our crops. They’re harassing us for fertiliser, for electricity, at mandis… they want us to leave and for the corporates to take over,” Parwinder Singh, district president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), Amritsar, told ThePrint at a toll booth that the union has captured as part of ongoing protests.

Economist Siraj Hussain says procurement in states such as Chhattisgarh at Jharkhand is happening without any problem. “The Centre should answer why procurement in those states is at Rs 3,100 and not in Punjab,” he said. The MSP for PR 126 is Rs 2350.

Reasons for delay

The procurement process for paddy this year started two weeks late, farmers and middlemen told ThePrint. The process typically starts in the first week of October, but was delayed to 25 October, and started in full swing only after protests by farmer unions across the state.

The delay was caused by a strike from the Rice Millers’ Association in Punjab, who resisted buying rice due to losses from low yields, hybrid varieties flooding the market, and limited storage capacity in mills. The strike was called off on 5 October.

Farmers sit on sacks of rice at a rice mill in Punjab’s Mansa | Photo: Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

Farmers said they have been camping at mandis for the past 15 to 20 days with no takers for their crop.

“Look at this rice,” said Lal Singh, a farmer at Khaira mandi, holding paddy in his palms, “this is perfectly good, why won’t they (government) buy it? What is their problem?” He asked desperately.

Farmers have laid out the paddy crop in mandis with hopes to bring down its moisture. Middlemen have been telling the farmer that crops with more than 17 percent moisture will not be accepted, as that is the norm set by the government.

While the yardstick of 17 percent moisture exists, on ground such strictness over moisture content is unprecedented, said farmers. “Last year they had no problem buying rice which had even 25 percent moisture,” said Lal Singh, clearly agitated.

A farmer holding some of his unsold paddy in his hands | Photo: Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

According to Shamlal Dhalewan, due to the low demand this year, middlemen are being strict about moisture content. “Nobody cared for it so much in the previous years,” he said.

Rice millers have also been reluctant to buy grain variety PR 126—a government-recommended variety—from farmers alleging these are ‘hybrid’ varieties. There has also been an argument about the procurement of these rice varieties, because the outturn ratio target is inflated. Outturn ratio is how many kilos of rice is processed from per quintal of paddy.

“The government buys rice grain at 67 kg per quintal, while only 62 kg rice per quintal of paddy is processed from these grain qualities. Rice millers suffer losses of 5 kg and are unwilling to buy these varieties,” Amandeep Singh Chinna Vice-President of Arthiya Association of Punjab.

However, farmers argue that they’ve faced no problem in selling this grain quality in 8 years, and the issue has propped up suddenly.

Farm to godowns

The supply chain of paddy crop involves four stages. Farmers bring them to the market, where middlemen buy it from them to supply to rice mills and then sell them to the government. Once processed into rice, the crop is shifted to Food Corporation of India (FCI)-controlled or -partnered godowns and stored there till the FCI moves them.

This year, godowns are reporting lack of space at the warehouses. Officials at Soma godown in Bera village of Mansa said that earlier rice used to be moved by FCI from godowns to make space for new crops any time after the Hindu festival of Dussehra. But over the past 2 years, this process has been delayed, and they start getting rice from mills only in January.

Paddy is lying unlifted, rotting under the sun at mandis where farmers are struggling to sell their crop. Mill owners are also running over capacity, and are refusing to send trucks to lift paddy crops from mandis.

Lack of demand has created a price problem for farmers, who are saying they’re unable to get MSP on their yield.

“They [mill owners] ask for 3-4 kg katt (discount) per quintal. This is wrong. How are we supposed to sell our crop?” asked one farmer at Mansa mandi.

This year, they haven’t received a single consignment of rice so far, and are currently operating at 116 percent capacity.

Grain kept at a storage warehouse | Photo: Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

“11 lakh bags of rice from 2022-2023 are lying at our warehouse, and an additional 13 lakh bags from 2023-2024 are here, we’re operating at full capacity,” officials at the Soma godown in Bera village told ThePrint. Asked about why rice bags from the godown haven’t moved, the officials said: “only food corporation of India can answer that.”

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi in a press conference on 27 October had said that due to rains in September and a high moisture content in paddy, harvesting the crop and procurement were both delayed.

Centre said that Punjab is now on its way to achieving the target of procuring 185 lakh million tonnes of paddy.

Even as mandis are full of unsold paddy lying around, Punjab government has said that the state has procured the majority of the rice this year.

“We have purchased 105 lakh metric tonnes of the total 111 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in Punjab, and more than 22,000 crore of payments to farmers have been made. 4,759 mills have been allotted paddy while 4,439 mills have been engaged in lifting of the paddy,” Punjab’s Food and civil supplies minister, Lal Chand Kataruchak said in a press conference Wednesday night.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)