Bihar farmers compelled to sell rice at low price

Patna (PTI): Farmers in Bihar are being compelled to sell rice at 'very very low' price which is less than the cultivation cost due to poor procurement by government agencies and Food Corporation of India (FCI), officials said.

The rice output in the current season stood at around 75 lakh tonne, but the state and central government agencies purchased only 12.35 lakh tonne and closed the procurement by May 31.

Confirming the poor procurement of rice, FCI (Bihar zone) deputy general manager P K Satpathy said during the kharif purchase period in 2008-09 the corporation got 1.75 lakh tonne of levy rice.

Of the 12.35 lakh tonne rice procured, FCI purchased 4.2 lakh tonnes, NAFED 1.08 lakh tonnes, primary agriculture cooperative committees (PACs) 4.88 lakh tonnes, Bihar Food Corporation 0.87 lakh tonnes and Biscomaun 1.4 lakh tonnes.

Source: The Hindu

Agriculture scientists revealed that out of 75 lakh tonne of rice produced, Biada and farmers together stored 25 lakh tonne of foodgrains and the rest was available for sale, but the governmental and non-governmental agencies could procure only 12.35 lakh tonne, which was less than half of the availability of the product in the market.