Punjab: Rice mill owners push for policy reforms to promote sustainability

Punjab: Young entrepreneurs who have invested in the rice milling industry in the past years have urged the Centre to review its policy and allow alternative use of different grades of rice. The key measures cited to solve the upcoming agrarian crisis include allocating a portion of broken rice to grain-based distilleries to produce ethanol for blending with petrol and a liberal export policy. The rice millers said successive governments at the Centre and the state have failed to ensure the sustainable viability of the rice husk industry by bringing in a long-term policy that protects the interests of all stakeholders, including producers, commission agents and rice husk owners. Karan Kareer, a third-generation rice miller, said, “No rice miller has been able to make a steady profit for a few years. Every second season, many rice millers are not even able to make their profits.” He said their assets are at stake due to poor rice milling policies.

He said he is happy that the central government has implemented the Food Security Scheme by 2028; However, he said that keeping in view the most severe agrarian crisis coming due to the abundance of paddy in the country, the parameters regarding the percentage of broken rice and export policy norms should also be reviewed. “Currently, 25 per cent broken grains are allowed; however, it is not expected to be welcomed in the international market,” he said. A lower percentage of broken grains should be allowed, he said, adding that 15 to 17 per cent of broken grains should be sent to grain-based distilleries that produce ethanol. It should be supplied to oil marketing companies for blending in petrol, he said. The government will not have to bear any additional cost, he said. Sanjeev Puri, another entrepreneur who runs a rice sheller, said that the area under paddy cultivation in other states of the country has increased manifold after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha agitation, resulting in abundant yield of rice and paddy of various grades. He urged the government to take long-term measures to boost the export of high quality rice in the international market and explore alternative uses of the commodity to ease the situation of producers, rice millers and commission agents.