Harvesting of early-sown basmati varieties begins in Amritsar
The harvesting of basmati crop has started at full throttle as 18,818 metric tonnes (MT) of the crop has arrived in the grain markets of the district till Monday evening. As compared to last year when 7,503 MT of crop had arrived in the markets till September 16, the pace of harvesting this year is relatively high.
Officials of the district mandi stated that a maximum of 13,017 MT crop has arrived at the Bhagtanwala grain market, the biggest grain market in the district followed by 4,703 MT at Gehri Mandi. The mandi officials stated that the harvesting of early sown varieties of basmati has started in vegetable belts such as Tarsikka, Rayya, Jandiala and Majitha.
In these areas, farmers sow a third crop in between harvesting of basmati and sowing of wheat to supplement their incomes. The removal of cap on export price of the crop has also increased the pace of harvesting as farmers are hopeful of an increase in prices. At present, the best quality basmati is being sold for ~3,000 per quintal.
However, farmers are hopeful of increase in rate as they stated that vegetable growers usually are in a hurry and bring grains with more moisture content. As basmati is not covered under the MSP regime, it is solely purchased by private traders.
With basmati cultivated on nearly 1.46 lakh hectares in the district, its production is going to be much more than that of other PUSA and PR varieties of paddy as area under their cultivation had gone down to around 40,000 hectares.
Farmer leader Jatinder Singh Chinna of the Kirti Kisan Union said, “The price of basmati has seen an upward trend with the government removing the cap on export price.” Chinna said that if the purchase of basmati is regulated and monitored by the government, the prices may further go up.
