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Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Nov. 23 The country’s kharif rice production may be down almost 18 per cent this year – 69.45 million tonnes (mt) against last year’s 84.58 mt.

Yet, rice procurement is up 8.7 per cent, with Government agencies buying 11.58 mt during the current rice marketing season (October-September) as on date, compared with 10.65 mt in the corresponding period of 2008-09.

Officials explain the paradox by pointing to Punjab and Haryana, which have not been ravaged by drought, courtesy their farmers having assured irrigation facilities. The south-west monsoon’s failure has not hit production in these two States as much as in other rice-growing areas.

On the contrary, output has actually gone up in both the States. “Last year, we harvested 15.7 mt of paddy, whereas this year, our projection is 16.2 mt,” said Dr B.S. Sidhu, Director of Agriculture, Punjab Government.

Similarly, Haryana’s rice production is reckoned to have risen from 3.298 mt to 3.583 mt, according to Mr Rajendra Solanki, Joint Director (Statistics) of the State’s Agriculture Department.

The higher output is striking not only because it comes in a drought year, but also due to the fact that a large paddy area this year has been sown under basmati varieties such as Pusa-1121. According to industry estimates, the area under Pusa-1121 and other evolved basmatis has increased from 428,830 hectares to 714,162 hectares in Punjab and from 517,990 hectares to 545,759 hectares in Haryana.

However, as Mr Solanki pointed out, the extra acreage under Pusa-1121 and other improved basmati varieties was offset by reduced area under traditional varieties. In Punjab, traditional basmati was planted only in 75,500 hectares (against 157,110 hectares last year), while falling from 140,500 hectares to 65,000 hectares in Haryana.

“The overall basmati area in Haryana is marginally lower this time. What has happened is that farmers who were planting traditional basmati switched over to Pusa-1121 in a big way,” Mr Solanki added.

In Punjab, while the total basmati area has increased, its effect has been neutralised by farmers planting a high-yielding non-basmati called PAU-201. “This variety gives 8.5-9 tonnes of paddy a hectare, against 7 tonnes for normal non-basmatis. This time, about a fifth of the State’s non-basmati area has come under PAU-201, from five per cent last year, thereby more than offsetting the impact of the additional Pusa-1121 coverage,” informed Dr Sidhu.

As regards drought, he felt that the near-universal irrigation cover in the two States would not have made this much of a factor. Dry weather may have even helped by minimising the incidence of pests and diseases. “Last year, we had problems of white-backed plant-hopper, whereas, this time, no major pest attacks were reported,” claimed Mr Solanki. Rice procurement in Punjab this season has, so far, touched 9.14 mt. This is not only more than 8.55 mt of the entire 2008-09 season, but has surpassed the record 9.11 mt achieved in 2004-05. Haryana’s progressive procurement of 1.78 mt is higher than the 1.43 mt for the whole of last season and a tad below the all-time-high of 2.05 mt in 2005-06.

The likelihood of higher production in the two States is also confirmed by market arrivals in the current marketing season. Till Sunday, 13.96 mt of paddy had arrived in the mandis of Punjab, up from last year’s corresponding level of 13.13 mt. Haryana mandis, too, had reported higher progressive arrivals (2.80 mt versus 2.12 mt).

“At an all-India level, however, we still expect a dip in total rice procurement from last season’s 33.68 mt. Punjab and Haryana will not make up for the others,” a top Krishi Bhawan official admitted.

More Stories on : Rice | Cultivation | Other States

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