West Bengal Seeks Rice from FCI for Affordable Grain Scheme, Raising Concerns over Paddy Procurement
Delayed Monsoon, Slow Procurement Pace Prompt Request Despite Focus on Local Rice Production
In a letter to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the Bengali government begged the central utility to provide 1.98 lakh tons of rice so that the state's affordable grain program could begin in February of the following year.
The letter is significant since top government officials from Bengal said that the state did not request rice from the FCI for the cheap grain plan recently because the Mamata Banerjee regime had placed a strong emphasis on rice procurement in the previous several years.
In the letter, the state expresses concern over the paddy procurement process and expresses fear that the government may not be able to provide recipients with affordable grain in time for the Lok Sabha elections if the government relies on the rice milled from the purchased paddy. This is the reason the Center has been asked to provide rice," a senior government official said.
The procurement process, which started on November 1 after the kharif (monsoon) season's crop, is moving slowly.
"The state's target is 70 lakh tonnes of paddy, but so far it has only been able to obtain 3.38 lakh tonnes." By February of the following year, 80% of the objective is supposed to have been reached. By the same time last year, the state had acquired almost 4.50 lakh tons. Thus, the state administration has cause for concern," said a second official.
The food and supplies department stated in a letter dated November 21 to the FCI that the state requires rice from the central utility in order to operate the cheap grain scheme in February of the following year because of the late monsoon and sparse paddy harvesting thus far. This is in contrast to last year's pace of paddy procurement.
However, reports said that over 40% of the paddy had already been harvested in most of the areas that produced rice. There are a number of other reasons why paddy procurement has suffered.
First, there were not enough farmers registered on the site by the department to sell their products to the government.
"To register 25 lakh farmers for the kharif season was the goal. However, only 10.37 lakh farmers have enrolled as of yet, according to a source.
The inadequate registration was attributed by the sources to two factors. Since many of them were unable to sell product in the previous several years due to intermediaries booking the early slots and denying small and marginal growers the opportunity to sell, the majority of farmers lost interest in registering their identities. They had to pay back debts and needed to reinvest in the rabi season, so they were unable to keep their product for very long.
In addition, government agents are reviewing every farmer's paperwork before registering their names in the wake of former food and supply minister Jyoti Priya Mallick's arrest on suspicion of irregularities in the distribution and acquisition of food grains.
Many farmers' names have previously been registered without part of the necessary paperwork, but this year the authorities are not taking any risks.
Second, since Bakibur Rahman, the owner of a rice mill, was arrested on suspicion of committing irregularities in the public distribution system, the owners of rice mills have not shown interest in obtaining paddy on behalf of the government.
