Labourers cleaning the paddy bought from farmers at Madlauda Market in Panipat, the market procures about 9,000 metric tons of paddy in Kharif season in Haryana on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Padam Singh, a former sarpanch of Hullaheri in Sonipat teamed with his relative Virendra Singh and some others to rent a 108-acre farming land to cultivate paddy. Mr. Singh was hoping that it will get him round ₹30,000 profit per acre after all the expenses. But the rains that lashed in his area in the first and second weeks of October destroyed all his hopes. “I lost about 50% of my standing crops,” Mr. Singh said.

Just before the rains, the harvest of the paddy sown in this kharif season had started. Mr. Singh got about ₹3,800 per quintal. “After the rains, the rate has come down to ₹2,000 to ₹3,600. The colour of the paddy husk has changed to black after the rains. Traders reduced the rate seeing this, even though the grain is perfect. Many plants have fallen, bringing down the production. On an average, we used to get 70 manns (one mann is 40 kilogram) of paddy from an acre. Now it has come down to 50 to 55 manns after the rains,” Mr Singh said.

Paddy varieties developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) known as Pusa Basmati such as 1509, 1692 and 1718 are being cultivated in the area. Pusa 1718 matures a bit late and the loss in this variety could be higher as the plants are at the stage of flowering, the farmers says. Virendra Singh said that the loss is 50% and pest infection increased after the rains. “We have taken contract about 108 acres and my expense is about ₹60,000 per acre. I would have got ₹90,000 had there been no untimely rains,” he said.

The Singhs said before the rains, from 4.5 bigha (less than 1.5 acres) of land, they sold paddy worth ₹81,500. “Now, after the rains, we sold paddy from similar land for a rate between ₹36,500 to ₹ 55,000. Both quality and quantity suffered due to the rains. After the rains, machines have to be used for harvesting. We have to spend at least ₹3,500 additionally for an acre. There is at least ₹400 decrease for the crop harvested using machine and using hands. To control pest attack too, we had to spend more,” they said.

The farmers expect the government to do a proper survey on the losses incurred due to rains. “We need at least ₹40,000 as compensation for an acre,” they said. The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) held protests in Sonipat demanding compensation for farmers. “We have demanded ₹60,000 for an acre as compensation. Officials must visit the farms to calculate the loss,” said AIKS district secretary Shardanand Solanki.

Similarly, Amarjeet Singh and his sons experimented with cotton in Chittana, a village near Sonipat. He lost all the cotton cultivated in two acres to the rains. “Last year too, rains destroyed cotton in five acres of our land. This year, we sowed cotton in just two acres. The prices were good. But the production is zero. The expense for one acre is about ₹25,000,” Mr. Singh said. Rains completely damaged also the beetroot in one acre of their farms. “I spent about ₹10,000 here. 300 of the 1500 tomato plants in my field also perished,” said Anjish Singh, Mr. Singh’s elder son.

Yashvir Singh, a farmer and a trader in Panipat, who has a shop in the Madlauda Market, says farmers had to shift to machine cutting due to the rains and it reduced the price on paddy. “The best price so far for varieties such as Pusa 1509 and Pusa 1652 was ₹3,810. But it will come down now. We hope that the market will be steady from this weekend,” he said.

Shyam Sundar, the patron of the market, is an exporter and owns the only rice mill in Madlaunda. He believes that rains will not impact the price and production. “Obviously, grains with more moisture will get lesser price. Moisture varies from 40% to 16% in grains here. Prices will be decided based on the moisture content too. But the market will be good for both paddy and rice. The rates are high for about ₹600 compared to the last year. Last year production was less and the demand was high. Global reasons such as floods in Pakistan also caused increase in the price. Rice from here goes to Gulf countries and Europe,” he said.

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Printable version | Oct 14, 2022 6:14:23 am | https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/untimely-rains-damage-dreams-of-paddy-farmers-in-panipat-sonipat/article66006434.ece