Supplyco procures 96,734 tonnes of paddy from Alappuzha as ‘puncha' season nears completion
Farmers cultivated paddy on around 600 polders in the district, spread across 28,000 hectares, the majority of them in Kuttanad, during the season. Officials said that 92.48% of the paddy-sown area had been harvested. 'Harvest has been completed in 25,966.78 hectares. Procurement is progressing. The entire process is expected to be completed by the end of May,' said a Supplyco official.
The season witnesses the most extensive acreage of paddy cultivation in the region. At present, 53 mills are engaged in paddy procurement.
Even as the season is drawing to a close, issues continue to mar procurement at several places in Kuttanad and upper Kuttanad. Farmers said agents of mills were demanding huge discounts, in some cases up to 15 kg per quintal, to procure harvested paddy, citing discolouration, shrivelled grains, high chaff and moisture content. Last week, the State government decided to rope in Oil Palm India to procure harvested paddy lying on polders after rice mills refused to take them, citing poor grain quality.
Paddy procurement is carried out based on online registrations made by farmers. Supplyco has purchased paddy worth ₹272.79 crore from farmers in the district so far.
As in previous years, farmers receive payment from banks as post-harvest credit, which is later reimbursed to the banks by the government. Though Supplyco has begun disbursing paddy receipt sheets (PRS) to farmers, a majority of them are yet to receive the payment. Officials said that only the lists of farmers who sold paddy to Supplyco until March 31 had been given to State Bank of India for disbursing the procurement price. They said that talks were ongoing with Canara Bank about rejoining the PRS loan scheme.
Farmers are also upset over the State government's decision not to increase the procurement price. Supplyco is purchasing paddy at ₹28.20 per kg, which includes the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of ₹23 provided by the Union government and ₹5.20 incentive bonus from the State government. The procurement price has remained unchanged since 2022-23. Though the Centre raised the MSP by ₹1.17 to ₹23 in June last year, the State offset this by reducing the bonus by the same amount to keep the price at ₹28.20. Besides the procurement price, farmers are entitled to receive 12 paise per kg as handling charges.
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