Sleepless in mandis: Punjab farmers wait to sell stock amid tardy paddy procurement

In late October, like he did every year, Devinder Singh, 40, from Punnawal village in Sangrur district of Punjab, harvested paddy from his field. He loaded it on tractor trolleys and went to the mandi (grain market) in his village to sell the produce. He, however, was not prepared for the wait that followed — four nights and five days.

“Back then I didn’t know that it would take this much time. The government did not buy the produce on the first day and I had to go back home and come with a charpoy at night. I ended up sleeping at the mandi for four nights,” he said, standing amid heaps of grains that were yet to be sold.

Mr. Devinder is not alone in his misery.

Across villages of Punjab, farmers have been struggling to sell their produce leading to protests and blocking of roads. The slow procurement will also lead to farmers setting the stubble on fire, as it reduces the window of sowing of wheat, which has to take place before November 15 so that the wheat produce isn’t affected, according to farmers and officials.

If they are left with enough time before the next sowing cycle, farmers can plough the stubble back into the soil using different machines or make bales of it and sell them to factories. But both options require time and money, which farmers like Mr. Devinder lack.

Unable to sleep at night because of mosquitoes at the mandi, Mr. Devinder would often get up and go back to work at the field as there are “other things to be done before sowing wheat”. “I’ve been farming for 20 years and nothing like this has happened before,” he said.

Major Singh, a resident of Punnawal and vice-president (Punjab unit) of the All India Kisan Sabha, said, “I haven’t seen farmers struggling to sell produce like this in the last 40 years that I have been farming.”

While Mr. Devinder finally managed to sell the grains and leave the mandi by the end of the fifth day, Gurmail Singh, 50, was still hoping to sell his produce and return home. He said he had been waiting for the last three days.

“I slept here the first night as someone has to keep vigil to make sure that no one steals from the heap of paddy. The rest of the nights my friends kept watch on my stock as I had done it for them on the first night,” said Mr. Gurmail. “There were farmers who slept here for a week to 10 days,” he said.

Slow procurement

Harbans Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), Sangrur, said the situation is similar in other mandis too.

“Last year, the government procured paddy from farmers even if the moisture in the produce was about 18-21%. It has to be below 17% as per rules. But the sellers [who take the grains from the government to extract rice by removing the husk] went on strike this time saying that as the moisture content of the grains was high, it became dry with time and they were not able to extract 67 kg of rice from one quintal of grains, which is required as per their agreement with the government,” the CAO said.

The sellers (rice millers) are supposed to lift the grains sold by the farmers to the government from the mandis and then extract rice from it. But since the sellers were on strike and not lifting the grains, the mandis were full and there was no space for farmers to keep their grains for sale.

Farmers at the mandi in Punnawal said because of that, many farmers did not harvest their crop and let it stand on the fields even though it had matured, leading to losses. “As the grains were left at the mandi for days, the moisture dropped to 14% or 15% instead of 17% and this led to loss of weight. A quintal of grain now weighed only 96 or 98 kg. Because of this as well farmers lost money.” Mr. Major said.

‘Forced to burn stubble’

Both Mr. Harbans and Mr. Devinder said with less time left for sowing wheat, more farmers are likely to set the paddy stubble on fire. “Now I have lost four days and I have less time to prepare my field for sowing wheat. The produce won’t be good if I sow the seeds late,” Mr. Devinder said. “It is always the farmer who suffers loss,” he added.

Meanwhile, Satnam Singh, who came to the market with two tractor trolleys filled with grains, has parked his stock outside the mandi as there is no space.

“I’m hoping to get some space as soon as someone’s paddy gets picked up,” he said.

Published - November 08, 2024 01:06 am IST