KARACHI, March 2: The country has suffered a huge loss of around $260 million (Rs15.782 billion) owing to severe damage caused by strong winds coupled with rains and fog to the standing paddy of Basmati in the Punjab this season (2006-07).

Private estimates put the damage as high as 20 per cent or around 0.4 million tons of the estimated total production of 2 million tons harvested this season. The rapidly changing climatic patterns with rising trend in accumulation of condensed fog during harvesting season of paddy crop is being taken as a major factor for higher damage.

On an average there had been 10 to 15 per cent wastage to Basmati paddy due to host of factors but lately with growing problem of fog resulting in higher moisture during the harvesting season the damage ratio has doubled and is likely to grow in years to come.

Presently Basmati rice in the world market is being quoted at around $650 per ton and this means that the cost of 0.4 million tons would come to around $260 million or Rs15.782 billion.

Major cause of recording higher wastage in Basmati paddy this season is strong winds coupled with rains which dropped the fresh but matured husk of the standing paddy on soil and could not be harvested mechanically. However, part of the fallen husk (fresh) could be picked up manually but yet it would lose its quality on absorbing moisture from the ground.

Due to condensed fog during the harvesting season of Basmati paddy there is higher content of moisture in the atmosphere and the husk which is dried in the open (natural way) retains some moisture which does not allow proper threshing thereby results in higher wastage and also affects quality of the grain.

In order to resolve the issue and save the country from losing huge foreign exchange by incurring high percentage of wastage in a cash crop like Basmati rice, exporters demand of the government to set up silos with public and private partnership in all the major crop markets in Punjab.

Talking to Dawn leading exporter of Basmati rice Haji Abdul Majeed said that if we check high percentage of wastage the country could earn $260 million more and this will also help grower to get proper return for the crop by minimising damages and wastage to such a high valued produce.

The cost of these silos having a storage capacity of around 0.2 million tons each is much less than what the country is presently losing in foreign exchange, he maintained.

He further said that mechanised dryers should also be installed in order to avoid age-old system of drying paddy in the open which causes higher wastage and damage to the rice in the process of threshing and processing.

In order to get good price the Basmati rice has to be seasoned at least for a year and this also requires proper storage facilities which is presently lacking. In the past the damage and wastage in Basmati rice was at around 10 per cent but due to rapidly changing climatic conditions and higher fog there is urgent need to set up silos so that they could be rented out to growers to save their cash crops such as Basmati.

The Irri-6 rice which is mostly grown in Sindh and Okara in Punjab after harvesting is immediately exported as it does not need seasoning and Pakistan normally harvests around 2.2 million tons out of which over 1.5 million tons are exported after meeting domestic demand.

Rice exporters are also demanding of the government to immediately stop rice exports on Draft at Sight (DA) as it is a cash crop and this could be verified from the fact there had never been any carry-over stocks of Basmati or Irri-6 rice ever since their exports came to private sector. Export of rice should be only on opening of LCs which will also ensure remittances of export proceeds.