Centre adds boiled rice to PDS procurement, but farmers say it is too late

Farmers said the decision will not benefit them now as they have sold their harvest to local mill owners

The Centre's orders to procure boiled rice produced in Coastal Karnataka and distribute it to the poor through Public Distribution System (PDS) will benefit none as a majority of farmers had already sold their paddy to rice mills.

Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in a letter to Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Shobha Karandlaje informed that the Ministry had received a letter from Department of Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs from the Karnataka government seeking permission to procure local paddy varieties like Kaje, Jaya, Jyothi, Panchmukhi, Sahyadri, and Uma grown in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada (DK) and Uttara Kannada districts under decentralised procurement and consumption scheme and distribute to beneficiaries of priority households (PHH) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).

The permission was given to procure local paddy varieties by the Department of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on December 31. Welcoming Centre’s decision, Minister for Social Welfare Kota Srinivas Poojary said; “Distributing boiled rice through PDS was a long pending demand of people. White rice given to cardholders was allegedly sold to shopkeepers in order to purchase boiled rice from them. One lakh quintal rice is distributed every month through PDS in undivided Dakshina Kannada."

Poojary thanked both the Centre and state government for fulfilling the demands of the people of the coastal belt. Puttur MLA Sanjeeva Matandoor said that the decision will also benefit the farmers.

But farmers said that harvest in the coastal districts of DK and Udupi was completed in November. Without a proper storage facility, farmers had already sold the paddy to mill owners for Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,600 per quintal, which is much less than the price fixed for paddy under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) Scheme (Rs 1940 for the normal category).

“Government should have announced the purchase of local varieties of boiled rice in October in order to help farmers in the karif season. The government's decision will benefit only mill owners,” Raitha Sangha Hasiru Sene state secretary Manohar Shetty told DH. Government should direct APMCs to visit farmers in the villages and procure paddy from them soon after the harvest, he said.

“I had harvested 20 quintals of paddy. But sold it to local mill owners. I have to travel 30 km from my village to sell the paddy at the procurement centre under MSP. The extra money which I get for selling through MSP will be utilised as transportation cost,” said another farmer Narayana. This year, paddy is cultivated on 10,073 hectare of land during the kharif season in DK and 35,726 hectares in Udupi district.

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