FMTC begins process to purchase paddy

By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Nov. 25:The state-owned enterprise, Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC), has started buying paddy from farmers.

The company started purchasing paddy almost two weeks ago, said Mohan Prakash Chand, Chief Executive Officer at the FMTC.

Stating that paddy procurement has started from Nepalgunj, he said that the company has planned to purchase paddy from other Tarai districts.

The company will purchase paddy from Mahendranagar, Dhangadhi, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Birgunj, Janakpur, Lahan, Rajapur, Biratnagar, Birtamod and Tulsipur, said Chand. 

“We have already instructed related depots of the districts to purchase paddy. 

However, some depots have started purchasing paddy after farmers brought paddy to the depots. Some depots have not started purchasing paddy as the farmers have not brought paddy for sale,” he said.

According to him, the company has been purchasing paddy based on the minimum support price fixed by the government and the market price.

The government has fixed the price of coarse paddy at Rs. 3,198 per quintal and of medium paddy at Rs. 3,362 per quintal for this year.

Chand said that the inflow of farmers to the concerned depots has been increasing day by day since they began purchasing paddy.

Last year, the FMTC was unable to purchase paddy as per the target due to the higher price given by the traders than the minimum support price.

But this year, farmers are willing to sell their crops to the FMTC after the price of FMTC is higher than the price given by the local traders.

He said that even though the FMTC has fixed to purchase around 380,000 quintals of paddy in the first phase, it would purchase up to 500,000 quintals of paddy if the farmers brought it for sale.

The FMTC sells its own brand of rice by threshing the paddy bought from the farmers.

The FMTC has been supplying food to 23 highly food-deficit districts-- Taplejung, Sankhusabha, Bhojpur, Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga, Khotang, Manang, Gorkha, Mustang, Rukum, Rolpa, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Humla, Jumla, Mugu, Dolpa, Kalikot, Bajhang, Bajura, Achham, Baitadi and Darchula.

 Earlier, the government fixed the minimum support price of paddy and directed the FMTC to purchase paddy from the farmers to control the price hike and not to reduce the support price, said Chand.

Nepalgunj depot of Food Management and Trading Company started purchasing paddy from the farmers of Banke on Wednesday.

After the FMTC started purchasing at the rate of the minimum support price, the general farmers are getting direct benefits, said Ramsharan Lamichhane, chief of FMTC, Nepalgunj.

He said that with the testing of the paddy brought by the farmers on the recommendation of the rural municipality, they have started purchasing a maximum of 40 quintals of paddy from a farmer.

Lamichhane said that they have a target to purchase 51,000 quintals of paddy in Nepalgunj this year. Of the total 51,000 quintals, they will purchase 33,000 quintals of coarse paddy and 18,000 quintals of medium varieties of paddy.

He said, "We have started buying rice from farmers since Wednesday. We call the farmers of their turn as per the recommendations of the municipality. By doing this, farmers will not have to stand in long queues like in the past"

He said that it is mandatory to come up with a recommendation from the rural municipality to identify the real farmer.

The farmers, however, said that the private traders have also started purchasing paddy from farmers at a higher price than the FMTC-fixed price.