The rice farmers of GarhiKhairo staged aprotest sit-in against paddy price being offered to them by traders. Long queues of vehicles being witnessed at the border area between Sindhand Balochistan due to roadblock by protesting farmers. Protesting farmers leaders have said that the government of Sindh hasfixed paddy price at 4,500 per maund but traders offering them andpurchasing rice at 2200 to 2300 rupees per maund. The price offered by traders even could not meet the farmers productionexpenditure, protesters said.
Rice prices experienced a record hike of nearly 90 percent in the lastyear due to the devastating floods that erased nearly 1.9 million tonsor 80 percent of the expected crop production in Sindh alone.
Rice is the second biggest staple with an annual consumption of morethan 3.7 million tons. In addition to the devastating floods, the record rise in the cost ofproduction at both the farm and miller levels was also a majorcontributor to the price rise.
Paddy prices have declined sharply across Punjab losing nearly Rs. 1,500per maund in the case of the Basmati 1509 variety during a month afternew crops from the South also started to arrive in the markets.
Prices in grain markets across several districts of Punjab have declinedfrom Rs. 5,300 per maund to nearly Rs. 3,800 per maund as Pakistan isset to reap the second-biggest rice production of 9 million tons inhistory due to increase in cultivated area. Recent crackdown on smuggling to Iran and Afghanistan is also a majorfactor due to which prices may not go up before the start of next month.—NNI
