NAROWAL: Rice worth more than Rs2 billion rotting in godowns of the district due to limited exports and bad policies of the government is giving sleepless nights to the farmers, mill owners and traders.

Rice mills owners and traders of Narowal had purchased greater stocks of rice last year. But the commodity couldn’t be exported reportedly partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic and partly due to the government policies that are pushing the country out of the competition in the world market.

The paddy crop is cultivated on 176,000 acres of land in Narowal district, out of which 5,709 acres are irrigated by canal water while 170,000 acres are watered by tubewells. The crop irrigated by canal water costs Rs100 per acre whereas it costs Rs30,000 per acre if irrigated by tubewells as the cost multiplies due to irrigation by engines and use of diesel. Per acre paddy produce during the current year in Narowal district has remained 35 to 71 maunds while the average produce is recorded as 40 maunds.

Last year, the new crop rate was Rs2,300 to Rs2,700 per maund and it is Rs1,800 to Rs2,000 this year, causing a huge loss to the farmers.

The farmers are facing a severe crisis due to the situation as many of them had taken loans from banks to do business. They have spent money on fertilizers, pesticides and diesel but now the mill owners and traders are unwilling to purchase their crop as their godowns are already full. Some traders also had taken loans to do business.

Talking about the situation, farmer Muhammad Akhtar says: “The new paddy crop has broken the backbone of the farmers. We have no canal water in our district and we have to irrigate our crops with tubewells, which come at a high cost.”

Akhtar blames the government for farmers’ plight during the current year on the pretext of the Covid-19, saying they are not getting the return of their labour and many of them are under the burden of debt.

Asad Wahla, another farmer, says: “Diesel worth Rs30,000 is used to irrigate one acre of paddy crop in addition to costly fertilisers and pesticide”.

Giving another reason for the problems of the farmers, Muhammad Ulfat Jatt blames the elected representatives of Narowal who could not get a grain market established despite holding highest public offices.

Thirty years have passed since Narowal was upgraded to the district level but a grain market has not been established by the government yet. The farmers are forced to sell their crop in the private grain markets. Due to unavailability of government market, the rice mills owners and traders offer low rates to the farmers for their produce.

Rice mill owners and traders have their own version of the story as they are also facing issues of their own.

Khwaja Nadeem, a mill owner, says: “We stored rice in 2019 after processing it for exports but it could not be done due to the Covid-19 lockdown and now we have thousands of rice bags in our godowns.”

He suggests to the government to change its export policies to attract the world market and take steps to export the stored rice before it gets rotten. He demands the government to support those doing rice business and save the sector, saying, “A similar situation occurred in 2013 and the then government had provided tax amnesty and bank loan facilities to the rice investors”.

Hamza Butt, a rice mill owner, has more than 15,000 rice bags in his storage facilities. That’s why he is purchasing paddy on a limited scale.

Asad Karimullah, a rice trader from Narowal, has 35,000 bags of rice in his godowns. He claims that 365,000 rice bags are stored at different places of the district.

“During the last one year, severe weather conditions badly affected the stored rice and this year, the lack of interest by the government can destroy all the rice.”

He urges the government to plan exporting rice stocks of billions of rupees in district Narowal as well as other parts of the country.

“Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, there was no international trade and our rice could not be exported,” Karimullah says.

Though farmers as well traders think that rice exports fell this year across the world, the situation in India, a regional competitor in rice exports and the world’s biggest exporter, is very different compared to Pakistan’s.

According to theEconomic Timesof India on Dec 1, Indian rice exports from January to October this year increased by 43pc. The same newspaper reported that India had captured Chinese market too after a gap of years due to low rates compared to other rice producing countries. China, the biggest importer of rice, used to buy the commodity from Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar.

On the other hand, an APP report in the first week of December quoted the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics figures, showing rice exports from the country during the period from July-October 2020 decreasing by 21.19pc as compared to the exports of the same period of last year.

Agriculture Deputy Director Muhammad Tanvir says, “The farmers, rice mills owners and business investors are under depression due to the sale and purchase of rice.” He has also expressed fears that the stored rice might get damaged or rotten if not sold/exported well before time”.

The farmers, mill owners and traders have demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to take notice of the situation.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020