Paddy arrival drops significantly in grain markets in Amritsar

Manmeet Singh Gill

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Amritsar, October 17

Moderate to heavy showers in different areas of the district throughout last night has slowed down paddy harvesting as is evident from the low arrival of the crop in grain markets on the second consecutive day.

After parmal varieties are harvested, farmers would be left with late sown basmati. Its harvesting would continue till the first week of November. Jagtar Singh, farmer, Chogawan village

As per district mandi board, grain markets in the district witnessed an arrival of nearly 2,500 metric tonnes (MT) of parmal on Tuesday. The district had reported an arrival of nearly 1,300 MT crop on Monday.

As maximum paddy harvesting is done with the help of combine harvesters, the less arrival of crop in grain markets can be attributed to the fact that heavy machines are unable to operate in fields with wet soil after rain.

The district mandi officials said they expected low arrival of the crop during the next few days as it would take time for fields to dry and combine harvesters to operate. The district has reported a total arrival of 1.06 lakh MT of parmal during the season till date.

Basmati varieties have been cultivated on a larger area of nearly 1.42 lakh hectares as compared to parmal. Nearly 3.16 lakh MT of basmati has arrived in grain markets of the district.

The intermittent showers during the last 72 hours have also partially flattened paddy crop in villages. The areas of the district adjoining Ajnala and Mehta received more rain in comparison to the city.

A farmer Jagtar Singh from Chogawan said, “We hope that there would be no rain for at least seven to 10 days. It would give farmers time to harvest their parmal crop.”

He said, “After parmal varieties are harvested, farmers would be left with late sown basmati. Its harvesting would continue till the first week of November.”