REAP demands more paddy procurement centres

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has requested the government to increase procurement centres for paddy while the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation (PASSCO) said it would meet the needs of paddy growers.Chairman REAP, Haji Muhammad Azhar Akhtar talking to The News said that the government would not be able to achieve the paddy procurement target with few procurement centres.Criticising PASSCO’s decision to open only 100 procurement centres for buying paddy from farmers in Punjab, he said that the number of procurement centres were insufficient to meet the target.“The country is expecting almost three million tonnes of Basmati rice crop this year and the 100 procurement centres will not be able to cover the whole rice producing area in the province,” Azhar said. He was of the view that due to improper procurement arrangements made by PASSCO, almost 90 per cent growers of rice would be badly affected, which would have a negative impact on wheat sowing.Talking about the estimated milling capacity of the rice mills in the Punjab, he said that each mill produced almost 25 tonnes daily (approximately), which means that 100 procurement centres will procure 2,500 tonnes of rice daily. He said by this formula, these centres could buy only 50,000 tonnes in next twenty days. He claimed that paddy would not be available with farmers after these 20 days and efforts of the government to stabilise the prices of paddy and help farmers would not bear desired results.REAP Chairman said that there were 1,470 milling units in the province and the government should increase the number of procurement centres to 400 from existing 100 in a way that these units should cater to the requirement of whole of the rice producing area. He said that if PASSCO failed to procure 500,000 tonnes of rice in the next twenty days, it would over-flow the domestic rice market making it hard for the exporters to sell rice abroad on reasonable rates.Azhar Akhtar urged the government to immediately convene a meeting of the exporters, growers and millers to listen to their problems and increase the number of procurement centres.When contacted an official of the PASSCO involved in paddy procurement campaign said that the Corporation is catering the needs of farmers not the REAP. He claimed that soon after the PASSCO officials had started visiting Punjab, the price of paddy has increased to Rs1,100 to Rs1,350 per maund in just one day. He said that the PASSCO has been further checking the availability of rice mills as well. “As many mills will purchase paddy the growers get money and will be able to purchase fertilizers and seeds for next wheat crop”, he added.