Limited storage facilities in Punjab may cause difficulty in purchasing paddy
26-Sep-2024 08:04 PM
Chandigarh. The state that contributes the most rice to the central pool - Punjab is expected to have a great production of paddy during the current Kharif season.
The new marketing season for its purchase from farmers at the minimum support price is going to start from October 1, 2024, but due to limited space available in the warehouses, there may be difficulty in storing rice.
The Food Supply Department of Punjab has proposed to keep stock of paddy in the premises of rice mills, but the millers are objecting to it. In Punjab, paddy production is expected to increase to a high of 230 lakh tonnes in the current Kharif season of 2024-25.
In some places, sporadic harvesting and preparation of the new crop has started, while its arrival in various mandis may start from October 1.
The area under paddy cultivation has increased from 31.80 lakh hectares last year to 32.20 lakh hectares this time, while the weather and monsoon conditions have also been favourable to a large extent.
But the Food and Civil Supplies Department is worried due to the limited storage facilities. Apart from the four authorized agencies of the Punjab Government - Pangrain, Markfed, Punsup and State Warehousing Corporation,
the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has a total stock of about 175 lakh tonnes of food grains in its godowns, which includes 119 lakh tonnes of rice, 57 lakh tonnes of wheat and 7 lakh tonnes of paddy (equivalent to 4.66 lakh tonnes of rice).
According to official sources, the state has a storage capacity of 212 lakh tonnes of food grains. Under this, there is a storage capacity of 7 lakh tonnes in silos, 165 lakh tonnes in godowns and 40 lakh tonnes in Covered Area Plinth (CAP).
This time huge procurement of paddy is expected in the state, but the problem of its safe storage will remain.
The Rice Millers Association has said that it does not want to store paddy as its quality will deteriorate with passage of time and milling it later will incur losses to the millers.