Quantity achieved,quality next

Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana,a state plan scheme involving additional central assistance,was launched in 2007 as part of the Centre’s 11th five-year plan. It was initiated under the guidance of the National Development Council.

“We are not only looking at individual entrepreneurs but are more interested in motivating cooperatives,farm management committees and krishi unnayan groups to grab the opportunity and set up these modern mills. The government will purchase the machinery required for these mills through a competitive bidding process that has already begun,” said Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka.

With the modern mills in place,farmers would get a better price for their produce due to better milling procedures,while the state government is also looking at reducing breaking and other wastage of rice that is currently quite high in the older-generation mills. The new-generation mills would also have scientifically managed warehouses to store both paddy and rice,Deka said.

“Moreover,better polished rice would automatically fetch better prices for the farmer,” said an official in the agriculture department. As of now,only about five to seven per cent of Assam’s paddy is being processed in modern mills,with the rest still being passing through older-generation machines and the traditional dheki. The new mills would also help produce rice-bran oil as a byproduct,the official said.

Assam’s rice output has risen gradually in the past few years. It had first registered a surplus during 2000-2001,and the output reached 50.45 lakh tonnes by 2011-12. “We expect the farmers to produce 55 lakh tonnes by the end of the current year,and this has been possible due to several incentives that the department has introduced in recent years,” the minister said.

The Assam Agricultural University has set for itself a target of helping the state achieve a record output of 100 lakh tonnes per year in less than a decade. Its vice-chancellor K M Buzarbaruah last year unveiled a three-pronged strategy to share with the state government,which includes introducing rice varieties that are not only high-yielding but also submergence-tolerant,apart from going aggressively for double-cropping across the length and breadth of the state.

Farmers in Assam,who have been demanding procurement of rice by the Food Corporation of India for the past several years,found their produce reaching FCI godowns for the first time this year with the state government having fixed a minimum support price. The Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board till last week purchased 77,471 quintals of paddy from the farmers and has since supplied 48,275 quintals of custom-milled rice to FCI. In addition,FCI has also purchased some rice directly from the farmers.

The government had this year fixed two different minimum support prices (MSP) for paddy in Assam. While the MSP for the common varieties was fixed at Rs 1250 per quintal,that of the Grade A varieties was fixed at Rs 1,280 per quintal.