Farmers Movement Archive

Paddy arrival peaks in Amritsar

Amritsar, October 8A total of 99,701 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy has arrived in the district so far in the ongoing season, of which around 94, 896 MT of crop has been purchased by different government agencies, while 4,272 MT has been purchased by private players. The district mandi officials stated that a total of 22,296 MT of crop arrived on Thursday. Of the total procurement so far, a maximum of 48,064 MT has been procured by Pungrain, 18,690 MT by Markfed, 17,540 MT by Punsup, 8,827 MT by Punjab Warehouse and merely 1,775 MT by the Food Corporation of India. The mandi officials stated that last year only 77,000 MT of crop had arrived in the market till date.They said the increase in arrival this year was being attributed to early sowing of paddy which the government had allowed in view of the Covid-19 situation.The district mandi officials stated that procurement was expected to pick up speed in the coming days as harvesting would be at its peak. The officials have asked the farmers to bring only fully ripened crop with moisture content below 17 per cent so that the farmers do not have to wait.The district administration has issued an instruction to the combine harvesters and farmers to not to harvest the crop at night as the grains catch moisture. Meanwhile, farmers in various pockets of the district have reported low yield in the early sown varieties due to inclement weather conditions.

The Tribune

2020-10-09