RICE is the second food crop next to wheat cultivated in the country. It is a cash crop that earns foreign exchange. Punjab is the largest rice producing province followed by Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.

In Sindh, rice was grown on 7,12,524 hectares during 2008, compared with 5,94,026 hectares last year. This shows that there has been an increase in rice growing area. Rice is mainly grown in Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Dadu districts in upper Sindh and Thatta and Badin in lower Sindh. Besides, its illegal cultivation in cotton-wheat growing districts i.e., Nausheoroferoz, Khairpur and parts of Sukkur district.

A survey carried out to ascertain the increase in rice area in the current year revealed that there has been 24 per cent increase in the cultivation area. The major increase of area under rice crop was in the cotton-wheat cropping zone (46.4 per cent), followed by in the mixed cropping zone (27.4 per cent). Very small area (two per cent) increased in the rice-wheat zone. This is mainly because rice was already cultivated in this area and it was only replaced by fodder and vegetable area.

The main reason behind increase in rice area, growers said, was the serious attack of mealy bug on cotton crop leading to its complete destruction the previous year. Tremendous increase in rice prices also motivated farmers to bring more area under rice crop. Many of the growers cultivated paddy for the first time on their farm. Interestingly rice was also cultivated in almost all date palm orchards of Khairpur district.

Rice varieties: The IRRI-6 is the main variety covering more than 50 per cent of the total area under cultivation. The other coarse varieties are: KS-82, IRRI-9, Gunja (red), Dokri-70, Shandar and Hybrid. Whereas, the fine varieties, super Basmati was the major variety covering 15 per cent of the area, followed by the Russi and B-2000 varieties.

The per cent area under rice varieties grown in major cropping zone in Sindh is given in table 2.

Fertilisers: Availability of fertiliser remained a serious problem in all the cropping zones in Sindh. Most of the farmers did not use DAP during the current crop season due to sharp increase in its price. Few rice growers said they used SSP and TSP as substitute of DAP, but were disappointed.

Availability of urea also remained a problem during the whole season. The price of urea at the time of transplantation was Rs700 per bag which escalated to Rs1,000 per bag in September 2008.

Prices of other inputs like weedicide, pesticide, zinc etc. remained at higher side as compared to their prices last year. Majority of growers used Kartip against insect/pest control. The average price of kartip remained between Rs350-400 during last year. The price of kartip ranged between Rs800-850 per bag during the current year.

Overall crop position was satisfactory

except at few places where farmers reported shortage of irrigation water and expected low yield due to none use of fertilisers.

Prices of coarse grain varieties last year started from Rs400/md and reached up to Rs900/md. Similarly, the price of Basmati varieties started from Rs735/md and reached up to Rs1000/md. Also at the end of harvesting season, the prices had gone up about Rs300-500/mds. Moreover, paddy growers reported that they partially benefited by this price hike.

During this season growers are expecting prices of coarse grain varieties around Rs700-800/md and prices of Basmati varieties around Rs900-1100/md. Keeping in view the sharp increase in input prices in the current season, the minimum price reported by farmers is essential to save them from default situation.

Paddy marketing: There are three types of paddy buyers in rice-growing areas of Sindh -- shopkeeper, fertiliser and input dealers (arhties) and rice mills. Shopkeepers located in village level and they purchase it from small growers in small quantity and sell the produce daily or weekly to rice mills.

In cotton-wheat zone, where only few rice mills operate on small scale, fertiliser and input dealers (arhties) normally provide all inputs on credit to growers on condition that they would sell their produce to them. These dealers also stock the produce for some time and then sell it to rice mills.

In the rice-wheat and mixed cropping zones, rice mills are directly involved in purchase of paddy from growers. In this area rice mills also provide inputs on credit to farmers. These mills have more capacity to stock rice as well as paddy. In rice-wheat zone, where basmati varieties are also cultivated, most rice mills shell only coarse varieties as they do not have facility to shell Basmati varieties. These mills purchase basmati varieties but send it to other mills mostly to Punjab. In rice-wheat zone, some commission agents are also involved in purchase of Basmati varieties and they send it to rice mills in Punjab.

The mill owners perceive that they expected up to 34 per cent more supply of paddy in the current year, due to increase in area and good crop condition. They are ready to handle extra supply and they have no difficulty in handling and marketing. However, due to more supply they expect decline in paddy prices but they pointed out that paddy prices mostly depended on export of rice.

According to them last year prices of coarse varieties started from Rs460/md and reached up to Rs915/md and this year they expect the price in the market at around Rs600-650/md. For Basmati varieties, the last year prices started from Rs710/md and reached up to Rs1800/md and this year the expected prices is Rs1000-1100/md. The mill owners reported that they would try to purchase more produce during current year as compared to last year. They have all the resource to buy paddy.

Majority of the mill owners reported that they earned reasonable benefit from last year’s price hike as they did not stock rice while exporters and stockists gained higher benefit.

Suggestions: The government needs to sustain the momentum of rice crop by removing marketing barriers. Factors like water, fertiliser, pesticides, marketing and pricing are very crucial for the future prospects of crops. The government must come up with a strategy to balance interest of all stakeholders.

The rice growers suggested that government should not impose ban on export of rice which affects the farming community adversely. They also demanded of the government to announce paddy procurement price well in time before harvesting. In case of market failure, the government should be ready as a second buyer to keep the price at a stable position and acceptable to growers.