Guwahati: The Assam government‘s delay in issuing a notification for paddy procurement in the current fiscal has raised serious concerns among various stakeholders.
Assam government’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department issues notification for purchasing paddy from farmers each year through various paddy procurement centers (PPCs) of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state agencies at the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government.
The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department normally issues the notification towards the end of September, but it is already October 16 and there is no sign of it yet.
“The Assam government should issue a notification for the paddy procurement process by September 30. After the issuance of this notification, it takes about four to five months to complete the various processes, including inviting and awarding tenders from various farms, managing the marketing of the paddy by mandi workers, milling the paddy into rice, and determining the quality of the rice. The paddy is sent to the FCI godowns only after all of these stages are completed,” said official sources.
“Interestingly, the Assam government has not issued a notice this year, leaving those involved in the process baffled,” the sources added.
Several other states, including Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand, have already started the process of purchasing paddy from farmers.
Sources said the delay in the purchasing process is likely to badly hit Assam’s farmers, who will be forced to sell the paddy in the open market at low prices.
The FCI warehouse in Assam may also be filled with rice from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh. Once the godowns are full, the Assam government may refrain from purchasing paddy from farmers on the grounds that there is no space.
“The process of paddy purchasing is lengthy. By the time the rice from Assam arrives at the FCI godown, it may be full of rice from other states. As a result, the Assam government may stop paddy purchasing, resulting in a huge loss to Assam farmers,” said an official involved in the procurement process.
The Assam government failed to meet its target of procuring 1 million metric tonnes of paddy in the 2022-23 fiscal.
The Assam government was able to procure only 59% of the funds, let alone reach 1 million metric tonnes. The amount of paddy procured by the Assam government is only about 593,000 metric tonnes (593K).
People involved in the process are concerned that the government is delaying the issuance of the notice in order to benefit middlemen and brokers.
“Farmers in Assam do not have warehouses or cold storage, and therefore must sell their paddy during the harvest season. If the government does not issue the notice soon, farmers will be forced to sell their paddy to middlemen and brokers at low prices,” said a source.