MUMBAI, February 15: Contrary to the promise of ensuring a fair price for paddy farmers, the Kerala government's paddy procurement scheme has remained a non-performer. Against the targeted 20,000 tonnes by December, the government has procured, milled and distributed only 1,000 tonnes of paddy.The basic aim of the procurement scheme is to try and stop rice acreage from falling in the state, but thus far the state does not appear to have succeeded in its aims.
Kerala has, in the past decade, witnessed a 150-per cent fall in the area under paddy cultivation. The state government's committee on paddy cultivation has noted that the state is now facing a serious challenge in retaining even a meagre area for food crops. Of a gross crop area of 30.42 hectares in 1996-97, food crops comprising rice, pulses and tapioca occupied only 22 per cent. The per capita rice production increased from 51 kg in 1952-1953 to 63 kg in 1960-1961 and decreased to 33 kg in 1995-96.
The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF)government had announced the scheme in the wake of the controversial anti-reclamation agitation by the pro-CPM Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilalli Union (KSKTU). The scheme was launched based on the recommendations of a study by an expert committee headed by KN Shyamasundaran Nair. The committee had concluded that paddy price was at its lowest and farmers were finding it difficult to sell their produce.
According to the proposal, various cooperative bodies in the state and the Kerala State Warehousing Corporation were to procure paddy, mill it and distribute it through state-sponsored fair price shops like Maveli Stores and Neethi stores.
The floor price of matta rice was fixed at Rs 550 and white rice at Rs 500 per quintal. The average floor price for the two varieties was later raised to Rs 580, following representations by paddy farmers. A subsidy-support of Re 1 was also estimated as essential to ensure distribution of the procured rice at the rate of Rs 9 for matta rice and Rs 7.60 for whiterice.
Overall, a Rs 2 crore subsidy was considered necessary for procuring, milling and distributing at least 20,000 tonnes of paddy. The government had also allowed cooperatives without adequate funds to draw loans from district cooperative banks.
Sources in the state agriculture department told The Financial Express that only 1,000 tonnes had been procured till the end of December. Of this, 500 tonnes had been distributed through the State Civil Supplies Corporation-run Maveli Stores and the rest through Neethi stores run by the State Cooperative Consumers' Federation.
The main reason for the poor procurement, according to agriculture department sources was the flow of cheaper rice from Tamil Nadu. Middlemen in the rice trade had made use of the bumper paddy harvest in Tamil Nadu by procuring cheaper rice from across the state borders and were selling it to the procurement agencies in Kerala. Farmers had also complained of the high moisture content in the paddy stored by procurement agencies.
Whilefarmers' unions alleged that the impact of the paddy procurement scheme was only peripheral to the dwindling profitability in paddy cultivation in the state, a spokesman of the agricultural department maintained that the introduction of the scheme had improved farmers' confidence in the government's efforts to stop diversion of paddy land to other uses.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
