Norms for paddy procurement relaxed for Punjab growers

CHANDIGARH: In a relief to paddy growers of Punjab, the Centre today relaxed norms for crop procurement for the ongoing kharif marketing season after farmers complained of non-procurement of crop by procurement agencies citing damage and higher moisture content.

The Union Food Ministry today raised the 4 per cent norm for damage and discolouration for paddy crop to 12 per cent, a senior official of Food Corporation of India ( FCI) Punjab told PTI here today.

"To provide relief to paddy growers, the norm for damage and discolouration has been increased from 4 per cent to 12 per cent," FCI official said.

However, he said that the extent of damage in crop should not cross 5 per cent.

The new norms to be applicable for ongoing kharif marketing season will come into effect from today.

The relaxed norms for paddy procurement should be applicable for certain districts including Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahar, Patiala, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Fatehsgarh Sahib, Ropar, Sangrur and Bathinda.

"The new norms will be applicable only for 12 districts only," he said.

However, the norm for moisture content remained unchanged despite farmers demanding it to raise it from 17 per cent to 20 per cent.

Paddy growers bore the brunt of inclement weather conditions in Punjab where farmers have complained of fetching prices lesser than even Minimum Support Price (MSP) because of high moisture content and discolouration.

As per reports, farmers at several places are forced to sell crop at Rs 1,000-1,200 per quintal as against MSP of Rs 1,345 per quintal.

At some places, rice millers and procurement agencies even refused to buy crop, citing discoloured and damaged grains, which even led to protest by farmers.

Punjab government had even urged the Union Food Ministry to relax specifications for moisture content and discoloured grains during paddy purchase.

A team from the Union Food ministry even visited various mandis of Punjab last week and took samples to assess the extent of damage caused to paddy in terms of discolouration and moisture.