With the untimely rains damaging the crops, particularly paddy, in the harvesting stage as also the produce brought to procurement centres in frequent spells since the second half of March, the State Government has requested Food Corporation of India (FCI) to relax fair average quality (FAQ) norms of moisture content to 20% from 17% to help farmers.
According to Minister for Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalakar, the State Government has written to FCI in this regard already as damage due to untimely rains was extensive and the loss was up to 100% in the case of many farmers. Against the regular damage of paddy up to 20% due to untimely rains in the rabi season, the damage this year was huge both in the fields and at procurement centres.
He stated that orders had already been issued for custom milling of 1.28 lakh tonnes procured this season as boiled rice in case of paddy soaked in untimely rain and dried before procurement. He explained that procurement was faster by over 130% this rabi season compared to the last rabi as 7.51 lakh tonnes paddy worth ₹1,350 crore had been procured this year against 3.23 lakh tonnes last year till April-end.
“It’s for the first time in over last 100 years, the impact of untimely rains is so severe. The damage to standing crops in the harvesting stage in the fields and the produce at the time of drying by farmers as also at the procurement centres is extensive. The State Government is ready to procure every grain that is brought to purchase centres but it has to be in the quality parameters fixed by FCI”, the Minister said and hoped that some relaxation is given by increasing the moisture content to 20% from the existing 17%.
The Civil Supplies Corporation was also speaking to rice millers to purchase paddy with moisture content up to 20% after the rain-soaked paddy is dried again as the farming community was in deep trouble due to untimely rains. The State Government was also enumerating the crop damage in the fields itself so that the farmers could be given assistance with compensation of ₹10,000 per acres as already announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Mr. Kamalakar stated.
Stating that paddy procurement would pick up pace from this week, he said over 5,000 procurement centres were opened already out of 7,142 centres proposed for the season. Against the FCI fiat to start procurement from April 15, it was commenced five days in advance, he noted.
