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| Nexus between shellers, agents cost heavily to farmers | | Farmers demand fixing of lowest price of raw rice | |
Jammu | June 1
Farmers of R S Pura Tehsil, which is popularly known as the ‘rice bowl of the state’, and the aroma of the rice sown in the area has cast the spell over the nation but these farmers are deprived from this aroma due to their poor economic living conditions, courtesy the mediators (agents) between market and the farmers.
‘Paddy crop in this border town has given a meaningful and appropriate sobriquet to the newly created sub district R S Pura -the Rice Bowl of the State. Gloomy part of the picture is that majority of these hard working farmers, perhaps have not been able to feel the ‘aromatic and tasty rice’ which they sow and harvest,’ said Bishan Dass a farmer hailing from R S Pura. He said remorsefully that the quality of rice the baasmati for which the R S Pura locality is known for after it processing becomes out of reach for the farmers who had toiled grounds for it.
Another Sham Lal of middle aged farmer from Suchetgarh, while talking to The Early Times expressed his woeful tale alleging that the government has failed completely to take care of the price of raw crop as the mediators and owners of Rice Sheller have grabbed the market making a clear monopoly to purchase raw rice at very low rates. ‘This at times fails to give pennies profit over the cost of production of the yield,’ he lamented and said, “This thus is distracting the new generation from the traditional farming towards other options of the employment.”
Rattan Lal, Sham Lal and Shamsher Singh also hummed the same tunes and said that they do hard work during the every season of baasmati but when the time comes to count the gold, the mediators and shellers brush aside their interest and hard work but count their gold only.
They said, they produce two and half bags of baasmati on one Kanal of land at an average production cost of approximately at Rs 1500 but are forced to sell the same on peanuts to the agent’s courtesy lack of supporting government policies.
According to reports, the fresh yield of baasmati is sold in the market at Rs2800 per quintal whereas the old produce is marketed at the price of Rs 3300 per quintal but the farmers are deprived from the share of the huge margins made by the mediators and the shellers.
Meanwhile, while talking to Dev Raj Choudhary president of Kissan Forum Association asserted that the association had submitted memorandums to the government and senior officers of concerned department but all in vain. He demanded to the government to re fix the rate of Basmati at minimum rate of Rs.2200 per quintal.
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