FCI makes direct payment to paddy farmers in Punjab

AHMEDABAD: Food Corporation of India ( FCI) and state-level agencies have procured 11.95 million tonne paddy till Tuesday. For the first time in India's history, the central agency made an effort to make direct payment to paddy farmers in Punjab and Haryana bypassing commission agents before it was stalled midway.

In the 2010-11 marketing season, the strong lobby of commission agents did not allow FCI pay farmers directly. However, FCI was able to make direct payments into paddy grower's bank accounts for a fortnight this year before a Union agriculture ministry directive withdrew the programme. This year, FCI made direct payments of over Rs 20 crore to farmers in Punjab and Rs 5 lakh in Haryana.

"The response was not bad and we were able to procure 20,000 tonne paddy by making direct payments to farmer till 12 October. If state government supports us, there will not be any hitches in the next procurement season," said FCI Punjab deputy general manager Aseem Chhabra.

"The project was unsuccessful but we did make some headway this year. The real test will come when wheat procurement begins next year," said FCI Haryana GM AK Gupta. FCI was able to procure 50 tonne compared to 10,000 tonne the previous year. Over 3 million tonne of paddy would be procured from Haryana this year for the central pool.

After direct payments were stopped, commission agents are back in the game, paying farmers within two days of the procurement through an account payee cheque or by electronic transfers.

Till date, the maximum procurement for the central pool was from Punjab at 9.79 million tonne paddy, followed by Haryana at 2 million tonne where paddy arrivals are at the fag end. The other key state of Tamil Nadu has seen procurement touch 0.1 million tonne followed by 45,000 tonnee from Kerala. In Andhra Pradesh, traders have been procuring stocks of rice for the Central pool through mill levy.

In the 2011-12 marketing year, the government expects a record procurement of 35.31 million tonne rice, with a bumper paddy production of 102 million tonne. In 2010-11, the government had purchased 33 million tonnes rice for the central pool.