Gurdaspur to lose ‘basmati bowl’ tag this time: Officials

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 6

Over the last few decades, Gurdaspur district has earned the sobriquet of being the “Basmati bowl” of Punjab. However, the district will not be able to live up to the tag this time as Market Committee officials, who control all 100 grain markets of the district, claim that less than half of the last year’s quantity of the basmati 1509 variety is expected this year.

In view of the farmers’ unrest across the state, particularly in the Malwa belt where whitefly damaged a major part of the cotton crop, the state government have asked officials to procure each and every grain that arrives in the markets. However, a majority of the agriculturalists are selling their produce to private players despite the fact that they are getting much less that the MSP of Rs 1,450 per quintal announced by the state government.

“The government is offering me Rs 1,450 per quintal. However, I sold my produce for Rs 1,290 to a private player. I cannot wait for the agencies which, before picking up my produce last time, had haggled over the moisture content. I thought it was a better option to sell my paddy at a lower rate instead of facing harassment,” claimed Baghel Singh, a farmer of Pahra village.

Kuljit Singh Saini, Secretary, Gurdaspur Market Committee, said as for now, they were concentrating only on procuring the 1509 variety as the 1121 variety would arrive in early November.

The Gurdaspur district had a glut in 2013 when 2,104 MT of 1509 arrived, while in 2014 this figure decreased to 1,550 MT. Amrik Singh, Agriculture Development Officer (ADO), said, “This year, the figure will plummet further. Last year, the area under cultivation was 16,000 hectares while this year, the crop was sown on just 8,000 hectares. Farmers were wary of sowing the 1509 variety as rice millers had placed advertisements in all leading newspapers that they will not be procuring paddy due to excessive broken grain...

“The Parmal variety gives 67 per cent of the yield per quintal while the 1509 gives just 60 per cent. Rice milers do not stand to make profit and on the contrary, in some cases, they had suffered losses. Even in June and July-during the transplantation season- millers had exhorted farmers not to grow this variety. Nevertheless, keeping in mind the likely profits, farmers still went ahead with 1509. Now, these farmers are facing hardships selling their produce.”

An official said that the farmers who had sown this variety were the ones who will now be growing peas and potatoes in their fields. “It does not matter much to them even if they get a lower price because they at the end of the day the monetary equation will be balanced by selling peas and potatoes,” he said.