As farmers agitate for MSP, it creates problem of plenty in UP
MORE THAN 57 LMT OF PADDY, WORTH RS 10,274 CRORE, HAS BEEN PURCHASED FROM 11 LAKH FARMERS SO FAR, EXCEEDING THE 55 LMT PURCHASE TARGET
LUCKNOW : As the farmers continue their agitation for their demands, including guarantee on continuation of minimum support price (MSP), Uttar Pradesh is facing a new crisis due to highest ever purchase of paddy at MSP.
The government has already purchased paddy more than the state’s storage capacity, even as the current paddy procurement season will continue till February end, and just a month later, in April, it will start purchasing wheat.
The authorities, according to sources, are at their wits’ end and are wondering how to create space to store the excess paddy.
Confirming that the storage capacity was falling short for paddy, food and civil supplies commissioner Manish Chauhan said various options were being considered to create space to store paddy that would continue to be purchased till the procurement season ends.
“We may request Food Corporation of India (FCI) to move the rice from our godowns to other states or we may also think of distributing rice to beneficiaries under the public distribution system (PDS) for two months at one go to create additional space in godowns,” he said. UP distributes 8 lakh metric tons (LMT) of subsidised rice to beneficiaries every month.
As per information gathered from the department of food and civil supplies, more than 57 LMT of paddy, worth Rs 10,274 crore, has been purchased from 11 lakh farmers so far, exceeding the 55 LMT purchase target and authorities believe that the final procurement is likely to stop at around 70 LMT when the shutters are brought down on the current procurement season. Around 45 LMT of paddy was purchased during the corresponding period of the previous year.
“Last year, the final paddy purchase closed at 56.6 LMT, which was the highest-ever and this year the paddy purchase has already broken last year’s record in the middle of procurement season,” Chauhan revealed.
The problem, however, is that UP’s total storage capacity is only around 50 LMT and in case of rice/paddy the capacity gets further reduced to 40 LMT and the paddy procurement has
already outstripped the storage capacity posing a big challenge to the government.
“We have to store paddy or rice scientifically and unlike wheat, rice cannot be stored in the open. We are fast running out of safe storage capacity and the government will have to find a short-term solution immediately,” said an official, requesting anonymity. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who also heads the food and civil supplies department, recently directed officials to ensure safe storage of paddy being procured from farmers at MSP.
MSP higher than market rate
A huge difference between the MSP and the market rate of paddy is being cited as the main reason for more and more farmers queuing up at government procurement centres to sell their produce, apart from the aggressive procurement by the government due to the farmer unrest.
“This year, the MSP value is much higher than the price that farmers are being offered in the open market because of which maximum farmers are trying to sell their paddy to the government at MSP,” Chauhan said.
The difference between MSP and the market rate of paddy was around Rs 400-500 per quintal. “Earlier, the difference used to be nominal due to which many farmers preferred to sell their produce to private players, even if the MSP was a little higher, to avoid inconvenience involved in taking the produce to government purchase centres,” sources said.
It is widely believed that free distribution of food grains to the poor by the centre for nine months due to the Covid-19 crashed the market demand for both wheat and rice, and also their rates.