Farmers to lose billions

KARACHI - The farmers of the country are selling the rice paddy at through-away prices as they are getting the price far below the support price announced by the federal government.
Farmers told The Nation that they were compelled to sell paddy of basmati at Rs1100 to 1150/40kg in Punjab, which is much below the official support price of Rs1500.
Similarly, the situation of Irri (non-basmati) market is not different as farmers in Punjab and Sindh were getting merely Rs525 to 575/40kg which is also far below than official support price of Rs700-40kg.
The federal government has miserably failed to implement the official support price of Rs1500/40-kgs for Basmati and Rs700-40kg for Irri (non-basmati), farmers alleged.
On the demand of rice growers, the government fixed the official support price for basmati and non-basmati varieties of rice and directed the PASSCO for procurement of rice/paddy on behalf of rice millers from growers.
Due to low prices of paddy, the farmers were facing losses of Rs450 and about Rs200 on basmati and Irri respectively on 40kg, farmers maintained.
The delayed intervention of Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation (PASSCO) for procuring one million tons Basmati and Irri varieties from the current crop has led to a blow to the open market price of paddy this year, Hamid Malhi, Chairman of Basmati Rice Growers Association told The Nation.
The PASSCO had started procurement operation very late, as 50 percent rice crop had already been harvested in Punjab and Sindh, he said, adding that the harvesting had almost completed because of the sowing of wheat.
He said that paddy is one commodity that growers could not retain with them for an indefinite period and they had to sell it quickly at whatever price they get from the market players.
The present paddy prices of Rs1150-40kg of basmati in Punjab had left not good impact on the farmers as these are almost equal to the last year's prices of Rs1050-4-kg, Malhi lamented, adding the government was responsible for such financial losses to farmers.
The government fixed support price below than farmers' demand of Rs2000-40kg for basmati paddy and Rs1000-40kg for Irri, he said and added that government has failed to provide support price.
Mentioning the reasons behind declining prices of commodity, Malhi pointed out that the PASSCO was not playing its role effectively for procurement of paddy rice as it already entered very late in procurement process.
He said that PASSCO should gear up its procurement operations to stabilise paddy prices and ensure that its officials are personally available at the rice mills to make prompt payment to the farmers. Opposing the move of proposed tax on agriculture, he said the farmers already paying the tax in form of less prices than official support price while the pries of other inputs of fertilizers, diesel and others.
The representatives of the farmers feared that the prices of paddy and rice would start surging the moment the dealers and middlemen lifted the complete crop of paddy from the farmers.