MULTAN, Nov 12: The farming community has complained about not getting fair price of their produce despite the government’s directive to Passco to procure one million tons of rice.

Kissan Board secretary general Jam Hazoor Bakhsh said that although the government had claimed that it would not allow the middleman and the mill owners to exploit the farmers but the situation on the ground is contrary to the claim.

He said that the delay in official procurement of rice was causing heavy losses to the farmers and the board has decided to protest against the delay in procurement of cotton and rice by the TCP and Passco.

He said that farmers would block the roads on Nov 22 in all districts of southern Punjab, including Multan.

He said that the procurement of rice instead of paddy by the Passco would not benefit the farming community but it would only benefit the rice mill owners because the farmers were unable to process the paddy into rice.

He said that the price of paddy had decreased from Rs750 per 40 kg to Rs500, while the farmers were forced to sell super basmati at Rs1,100 to Rs1,200.

Dr Saeed Buzdar of the PPPP from Dera Ghazi Khan said that the prices had decreased after the government decision to purchase rice and not the paddy.

He said if the government did not intervene, the farmers would not likely to get the reasonable price of their product and the traders would continue exploiting them by offering a cheaper price.

He said that although the government had announced the support price of Irri at Rs700 per 40 kg, the farmers were forced to sell their crop on low rates. The government should ensure the availability of better price of Irri to the farmers and announce the price of supreme quality rice because the prices of agricultural inputs had increased many times.

A trader at the local grain market said that the price of rice had gone down due to the earthquake in Balochistan as smuggling of rice to Afghanistan and Iran has been temporarily suspended due to roads damaged by the ‘quake..

He said that the starting price of super basmati was Rs2,800 per 40 kg but now the market rate was Rs2,500, while the price of Irri -9 has been down from Rs1,600 to Rs1,400.

Haji Shahid Alam, who is doing business at the local grain market, told Dawn that the price of super basmati paddy has been decreased from Rs1,400 to Rs1,200 per kg. He said that the prices would fall further until the Passco starts procurement.

Ahmed, a rice exporter from Karachi, said that the rice prices were facing a downward trend in local market due to the less demand of the commodity in the international market.

Passco’s managing director Maj Gen (retd) Ahmed Saleem Mela was not available for comments.