Central team completes survey of districts facing dip in paddy yield

A 14-member central team on Thursday completed its survey of rain and flood-hit areas witnessing drop in yield and reduced paddy quality.

This comes days after the state government urged the Centre to relax procurement standards. The team was sent to the state after the Punjab Government shot off a letter to the Centre.

The team lifted paddy samples from 19 districts, including Patiala, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pathankot.

The report will be submitted to the Union Food Minister. Confirming the testing of the samples at laboratories of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in the state, a senior official, said, “The teams have visited all the areas that have seen crop loss.”

In the immediate context, farmers are looking forward to relief from the private traders who are paying them lesser than the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,369 per quintal for normal paddy.

Besides the crop loss on nearly five lakh acres, farmers are also facing problem in selling their crop because of reduced quality due to higher moisture content.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had on September 30 met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting for relaxation in procurement standards for flood-affected paddy.

Punjab teams helped the Central team to complete their survey.

Procurement in the state had started from September 15. A senior official said, “We have shown the ground reality and the problems being faced by farmers. The results of the samples will show the reality. We have been heard patiently by the visiting teams.”