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Kathmandu Tuesday December 04, 2001 Marga 19, 2058.
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Farmers sell paddy at
throw-away prices
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 3 – The poor
paddy-producing farmers of the country have been once again forced to sell their paddy at
a price far less than its actual cost of production.
Though the market price of paddy has soared
by around 5 per cent as compared to last year, according to the farmers, the existing
market price is still 25 percent less than the actual cost of production. The government
decision to withdraw agricultural subsidies, and its policy of not fixing a minimum
‘support-price’ since last year are some of the prime causes for the present
crisis.
The existing paddy price is still at the
level of the 1997 price, whereas the cost of production since then has increased by over
25 percent. Last year, propelled by a bumper crop and huge flow of Indian rice, the price
of paddy had tumbled by around 50 percent i.e. to Rs 500 per quintal from over Rs 1,000 in
the previous year. This had forced the farmers to sell their yield at a price equal to
husk.
Last month, a delegation of All Nepal
Farmers’ Association had even submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister urging him
to intervene personally in the matter. But nothing happened.
According to a latest price survey conducted
in western Terai, per quintal price of coarse-paddy is Rs 600-625, whereas the price of
medium-quality paddy is around Rs 750 per quintal. Similarly, despite unfavorable weather
conditions in Eastern Terai, the price of paddy in the area is almost the same as that of
Western Terai. The price of coarse-paddy in Morang, the leading paddy market of the
eastern region, is around Rs 625 per quintal, as against Rs 1,000 two years ago.
Though the government is aware of these
scenarios, it is still stuck on its policy of non-intervention. "The government has
no policy to intervene in the paddy market," said Narayan Prasad Regmi, spokesman at
the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. He also informed that the government had
initiated some rescue packages for the farmers, but they never materialised.
In the entire Terai region, the situation is
slipping from bad to worse as the farmers have started selling their paddy at throw-away
prices. This also has something to do with the ongoing Maoist insurgency. The situation
can get out of hand the coming month when the Indian farmers’ harvest flood the
market. The Food Corporation of India has already said that it is holding on to a surplus
of stock, which it wants to sell off.
Experts fear that the slightly improved
domestic paddy price can dip if the FCI decides to sell around 30 million tonnes of paddy
in India, since it can easily reappear in Nepal. However, officials of the Nepal Food
Corporation (NFC) rule out such a possibility. "Since the majority of customs points
are being strictly monitored by the armymen, the free flow of Indian rice into Nepal will
not be as easy as it used to be some years ago," says Parvat Chandra Pandey, chief of
the purchasing department at NFC.
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