Farmers have urged the concerned officials to minimise the role of middleman to provide better price of paddy to growers. Although the government has fixed intervention prices of basmati at Rs 1,250 per 40 kg and Rs 650 for Irri-6 varieties of rice but the middlemen are procuring the crop at lower rates from small farmers, Muhammad Asif, a small farmer, informed APP on telephone from Khushab on Friday.
He appreciated Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation (Passco) for setting up 50 procurement centres to purchase one million tons paddy from the growers. He, however, pointed out that small farmers are being exploited at the hands of middleman and they are forced to sell their product at lower prices. He claimed that the farmers are selling basmati rice at Rs 1,250 per 70 kg.
According to official sources, rice production has reduced internationally and it is expected that the prices of the commodity would go up in the market, and prices as a result in local market would increase as well. They, however, added that the government was determined to safeguard the rights of the growers by providing them proper price of their production.