Govt advances procurement to September 15, farmers fume
Sangrur/Chandigarh, July 21 -- The Punjab government has advanced paddy procurement from October 1 to September 15, announced chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday.
Speaking in his home constituency of Dhuri, Mann explained that the traditional October 1 procurement often found the crop retaining moisture, leading to disputes over moisture meter readings and similar practices.
"For early start of procurement by the state government, we have written to the Centre's minister of food and PDS to make early arrangements," said minister for food and civil supplies Lal Chand Kataruchak. The Centre has a role in arranging cash credit limit (CCL) for purchase of crop and gunny bales for storage.
Farmers, however, argue the move is "totally impractical", given the actual harvest schedule. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of BKU Ekta Ugrahan, said, "Paddy is not harvested in September. The short-term varieties are also sown late. They will be ready in October. Early harvest might be possible with 'sathha paddy' (matures in 60 days), which is hardly used now."
An agricultural expert stated that the PUSA variety cannot possibly arrive by September 15: "Many farmers have sown PUSA 44, a variety banned by the Punjab government, which is a long duration variety of paddy."
The government-approved paddy varieties are PR 126, PR 128, PR 131 and PR 129. The duration for maturity is 93 days for PR 126, 110 days for PR 128, 110 days for PR 131 and 108 days for PR 129. In comparison, the PUSA variety requires 125 days to reach maturity.
Notably, this year, the Punjab government had also advanced the date of paddy transplantation from June 20 to June 1. However, majority of farmers started transplanting paddy only in July....
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