Thousands of rice mills closed in UP due to lack of incentives

25-Sep-2024 01:33 PM

Lucknow. In Uttar Pradesh, a leading rice-producing state, more than 11 thousand rice mills have been closed due to lack of support and cooperation from the government and heavy losses in business. Most of the units which are still operational are in a bad financial condition.

Rice millers have urged the state government to take immediate steps to solve the problems and challenges of the rice industry so that no mill has to be closed in the future.

Last day, in the annual general meeting of the Rice Millers Association in Lucknow, the president raised this issue in the presence of the Deputy Chief Minister of UP and said that in the year 2011-12, the total number of rice mills in Uttar Pradesh was about 14 thousand,

which has now come down to just 2500. This means that during the last 12 years, 11,500 rice mills have been closed in the state.

In short, during this period, about 1000 rice mills were shutting down every year, but the government did not make any serious effort to stop this.

This continuously worsened the situation. The president of the association said that for the last four decades, the central government has been paying only Rs 10 per quintal to rice mills for milling paddy, which is extremely low. There is a dire need to increase it.

The association has also raised the issue of rice recovery percentage before the harvesting of the new Kharif crop of paddy begins in Uttar Pradesh.

It says that the government has fixed the average recovery rate of rice from paddy at 67 percent, while the actual recovery is less than this. Millers do not get any incentive and they cannot bear the loss for a long time.