With increase in basmati prices, paddy arrival begins in Haryana mandis
Published on: September 1, 2021.
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Arrival of paddy in the mandis of the northern districts of Haryana has begun with harvesting of the early varieties has started.
Arrival of paddy in the mandis of the northern districts of Haryana has begun with harvesting of the early varieties has started.
Prices of Basmati’s largely-sown early variety, Pusa Basmati 1509, is being procured between ₹2,500 and ₹2,650 per quintal with the traders showing interest in procurement following a surge in demand of long-grained rice in the international market.
According to farmers, this year, the prices have improved as compared to last year but ₹2,500 per quintal is still not enough because they are getting around ₹10,000 less per acre as the yield was sold over ₹3,000 per quintal in 2019.
“I sold my produce of two acre at ₹2,575 per quintal against ₹2,100 of last year. This is an improvement than last year but the prices are still not remunerative and they should be above ₹3,000 as the input cost has also increased due rise in diesel prices and labour cost,” said farmer Madan Lal at Ladwa grain market in Kurukshetra.
“As of now, the moisture content is higher and most crop is harvested by combine harvesters. We think the prices will easily increase to over ₹3,000 when the crop will be harvested manually,” said commission agent Naresh Kumar, at Ladwa grain market.
Most of the paddy is coming in from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh as harvesting in Haryana has just started. “There are no restrictions on early transplantation in UP so the farmers there grow early varieties to empty their fields for vegetables. But this may create problems for Haryana farmers as those from UP won’t hesitate to sell their produce at any available price with there being no mandis in their state,” said another commission agent Praveen Kumar, of Niolkheri.
The Haryana government has announced to advance procurement of Parmal varieties to September 25 from October 1. This will help farmers who have grown early varieties.
As per the figures of the All India Rice Exporters Association, the country’s export of basmati rice has improved to 46,31,531 MT in 2020-21 from 44,54,656 MT in 2019-20.
However, traders are expecting that the prices of basmati varieties to remain good this year and varieties such as Pusa 1121, CSR 30, Sharbati and Moochal may get more than ₹3,000 per quintal. It will help farmers get some relief as last year they were forced to sell Pusa 1509 and Pusa 1121 at around ₹2,000 per quintal.
As per the figures of the state agriculture department, this year, the area under paddy cultivation is around 12.50 lakh hectare which is around 18% less than last year’s 15.27 lakh hectare.
