FARM DISTRESS. Procurement woes, unseasonal rain dampen Bengal’s paddy farmers

Sixty-one-year-old Md Rafick Mallick, a farmer from Shaktigarh village in Burdwan district, known as the rice bowl of West Bengal, is a defaulter.

Unable to repay his ₹1.5-lakh loan taken for sowing potato in 2016-17 — as the price of the tuber crashed due to excess production — Mallick, who grows paddy followed by potato on his 38 bighas (15.24 acres) of land, not only lost out on the five per cent interest subvention but also had to fall back on moneylenders to harvest kharif paddy this year. This delayed harvesting of his early variety paddy affecting the quality of produce, and leaving him distressed.

“I have pledged a portion of my paddy crop with the moneylender in lieu of the loan. If my crop does not fetch good price this year, then I might not be able to repay the loan. I really do not know what I will do then,” Mallick told BusinessLine .

Mallick is not alone. many others are caught in the same bind, and they reiterate that farming is becoming increasingly unviable due to rising costs and fluctuating prices.

Bengal ranks second in paddy and potato output in the country; the districts of Burdwan and Hooghly being the largest contributors to the production.

This year, kharif paddy harvest has been delayed due to heavy post-monsoon rain in October. Harvesting, which typically begins by end-October and continues till the third week of November, is yet to commence in most pockets of the State.

Farmers are worried that this will not only impact the output, but also the quality of the crop.

“A portion of my crop suffered pest attacks due to the untimely rain. A poor quality crop cannot fetch good price,” 35-year-old Tapan Santra said.

Heavy showers during the sowing and transplanting period in June-July had washed away paddy seeds across Burdwan, Hooghly, Nadia, Purulia, East Midnapore and West Midnapore districts. The districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Uttar Dinajpur and Malda in North Bengal too were affected.

The State government provided farmers fresh supplies of seeds to ensure that the entire 42 lakh hectares under aman is covered.

West Bengal produces 15-16 million tonnes of paddy each year across the three seasons including aus and aman (kharif paddy) and boro (the rabi crop). The kharif paddy output accounts for about 70 per cent of total production.

Paddy prices in the State are currently hovering around ₹800 a bag (of 60 kg) or close to ₹1,333 a quintal. Though this is lower than the Minimum Support Price of ₹1,550 a quintal announced by the government this year, it is almost 14 per cent higher than the prices same time last year.

In 2016, West Bengal produced 16.2 million tonnes of rice, 2.5 per cent more than in 2015.

“Last year we got ₹700 for a bag at this time of the year. Prices are better so far this year as there has been a good demand from Bangladesh,” Santra said.

Farmers spend ₹6,000-7,000 on paddy cultivation on every bigha (0.401 acre). In a good year, close to 10 bags of paddy can be harvested from one bigha . At current prices, therefore, farmers stand to gain.

However, Tapan and Mallick are scared to wait for prices to improve or for the government procurement process to begin to get higher prices. They preferred to sell their produce at a price slightly lower than the MSP.

Barring a handful of large farmers, who can afford to hold on to their crop, the majority of the small and marginal farmers are forced to sell their produce to middlemen at whatever price it fetches to clear their debt and meet their daily expenses.

“Harvesting is yet to gather pace. Once the arrival of new crop starts, prices may fall further,” Mallick said, explaining the reason for selling below the MSP.

The State Food and Supplies Department aims to procure 52 lakh tonnes of paddy directly from the farmers at MSP in 2017-18 compared with a procurement of 40 lakh tonnes in 2016-17.

A sop of ₹20 per quintal above the MSP will be provided to encourage the farmers to sell the paddy directly to the government or through cooperative societies, Jyotipriyo Mullick, Food and Supplies Minister, said.

The paddy would be bought from the farmers through various organisations such as ECSC, CONFED, BENFED and cooperatives.

“We have set up 328 central purchasing centres across the State to ensure a robust procurement mechanism. We have also enlisted 750 co-operative societies to work at the block level,” he said.

However, only a handful of these purchasing centres has commenced procurement.

So, while the State government claims a robust procurement mechanism for paddy, it is often too little too late, farmers cry.

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