Govt leaves rice procurement to private sector

M RAFIQUE GORAYA

LAHORE: The Federal and provincial governments have left prices of new crop of paddy to the market forces mechanism as only private sector is in the field to purchase the commodity from the farmers without the government intervention.

Chairman Basmati Growers Association Hamid Malhi told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the non-Basmati and coarse paddy has been harvested in Punjab. However, after the 18th Constitutional amendment, agriculture sector has been transferred to the provinces and the farmers have been left at the mercy of the market forces.

Malhi said that rice crop is in good condition in Punjab which is likely to produce more than 3.2 million tons of rice, of which 2.8 million tons would be world famous fine basmati rice. Pakistan earns more than $ 2 billion foreign exchange from the rice export every year besides meeting its domestic food requirements.

It may be added that the federal government had been announcing minimum support price for the paddy in the past and procuring one million ton paddy through the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) to stabilise the prices of the commodity for protecting the farmers from exploitation of the traders and rice mills owners.

President Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) Tariq Bucha said that the government must fix minimum procurement price of cotton and rice as it had been doing in the past in view the rising cost of production. He claimed that cotton prices in Pakistan are much below the current international prices.

He said agriculture sector is the backbone of economy, which is earning precious foreign exchange, providing raw material to the agro-based industries and ensuring food security for the nation. If the government does not look after economic interest of the farming community, then it would not be able to control the consequential social and economic upheavals in the country.

Chairman Pakistan Agri-Forum Ibrahim Mughal said that the government should fix the support price of non-basmati at Rs 1200 and basmati at Rs 2000 per maund to ensure fair return to the farmers of their labour and investments. He said cost of agriculture inputs including fertilisers has almost doubled in a year, therefore it was imperative that the government should intervene and announce minimum procurement price of the agriculture commodities. He regretted that the price of non-basmati paddy has come down from Rs. 1200 per maund to around Rs. 900 to Rs. 950 per maund in a couple of days.

Kissan Board Pakistan Central Rice Committee Chairman Ch. Imanullah Chattha has also demanded that the government should issue directives to government departments to buy paddy from market so that stability of prices could be maintained in the market.