Chandigarh, Feb 19: The Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (Hafed) has decided to set up two rice milling plants at Ding and Kalanwali in Haryana's Sirsa district. The units, which have a capacity of milling two tonnes of paddy per hour, is expected to go on stream by July 2001. The estimated project cost is over Rs 70 lakh per unit. According to Hafed sources, the federation is not considering joint ventures with foreign firms as it may hike the project cost and would also create problems associated with post-commissioning maintenance. These plants will be equipped with par boiling and drying units, which would bring down the percentage of broken rice. The rice from these mills will be 8-10 per cent broken, which is a lot better than the rice coming out of the existing shellers. Hafed has 10 existing rice milling plants in the state at present. It is mainly involved in the processing of non-basmati paddy.The mills at Ratia and Jakhal in Fatehabad district are equipped with par boiling units while there is a proposal to set up par boiling and drying units at the Radaur and Piloo Khera mills in Yamunanagar and Jind districts, respectively. In a par boiling unit, wetting of paddy is followed by steaming and drying.
In order to avoid distress sale, HAFED has been purchasing huge quantities of paddy from the farmers. It purchased 6 lakh tonnes of paddy in October-November, 2000, in comparison to 1.33 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period in the year 1999. As paddy is a perishable commodity, it has to be milled as early as possible to reduce the percentage of broken rice.
HAFED has paid a sum of Rs 350 crore to the farmers towards paddy purchase in this season. Out of the total government purchase, Hafed accounts for 44 per cent while the remaining is bought by other agencies like the Food and Supplies Department, Haryana Warehousing Corporation, FCI and Haryana Agro Industries Corporation. Out of the 6 lakh tonnes of paddy purchased this season, only 10 per cent was milled by Hafed and the remaining was milled by custom millers in different parts of the State.
Sources in Hafed said Haryana had been monitoring its paddy procurement and the subsequent milling in a highly organised manner and as a result it had not faced a paddy crisis like the one faced by the neighbouring Punjab.
HAFED is also contributing major share capital for the purpose of setting up two sugarcane milling plants at Panniwala Motta in Sirsa district and the other at Gohana in Sonepat district. The sugarcane crushing capacity of these plants will be 1,750 and 2,500 tonnes per day.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
