Rain will increase moisture in both Paddy and Basmati and winds may smash standing crop which will further affect quality, said Balwinder Singh Chhina, district chief agriculture officer. (Source: PTI/file) Rain will increase moisture in both Paddy and Basmati and winds may smash standing crop which will further affect quality, said Balwinder Singh Chhina, district chief agriculture officer. (Source: PTI/file)

While the 30mm of rain Tuesday may have come as huge relief to residents of Amritsar, it has begun to worry agricultural experts and farmers. The agriculturists believe that the untimely rain, just ahead of official paddy procurement, is likely to lower the quality of grain and increase moisture content in standing paddy plants thus leading to low prices.

It will only add to the financial problems of farmers in the paddy belt of Majha and Doaba, where the superfine Basmati rice variety is already being auctioned at all-time low prices. Around 1.80 lakh hectares is under Paddy and Basmati in Amritsar; 1.36 lakh hectares is under Basmati and 44,000 hectares is under paddy.

The Basmati crop has almost matured and is reaching grain markets. Besides, official procurement of paddy will begin from October 1 in Punjab.

“Rain on Tuesday was not good for paddy and Basmati as both crops are almost ready for harvest. Tuesday’s rain has postponed harvesting of both crop by at least a week. Then again, there is forecast of rain and winds in the comings days. Rain will increase moisture in both Paddy and Basmati and winds may smash standing crop which will further affect quality. It may develop unwanted black element in the grains and can also break them,” said Balwinder Singh Chhina, district chief agriculture officer.

“Those who used more than the recommended amount of fertilisers will be the worst affected as grains in their fields will be of bigger size at this point of time as crop gets mature before harvesting season due to overfeeding. Heavy plants will surrender to winds more easily than those that are still developing,” Chhina added.

Basmati is sold in the open market whereas paddy is procured by the government at MSP. It, however, doesn’t mean that the damage by the rains would not affect paddy farmers. During the wheat procurement season this year, the Centre had imposed value cuts on procurement of wheat to compensate the damage by untimely rain. The rain also dented wheat production, which directly affects farmer profits. It may be a repeat for farmers in the paddy season.

“We are surprised. Basmati is superfine variety of rice and it is being auctioned at Rs 1,200. Besides being inferior to Basmati, MASP of paddy crop is Rs 1,450. How can you sell superfine quality at lower price than its inferior variety,” said an official of Agriculture department.

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