The paddy procurement centres in the State are being told to remove chaff from the grain stocks being brought by farmers before weighing it so that they are not put to loss in the name of deduction in grain weight both for chaff and other wastage.
Responding to a report published in the columns of The Hindu, chairman of Rythu Bandhu Samithi (RBS) Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said on Saturday that the procurement centres were being told to remove chaff and other waste before weighing the stock, even if the farmers bring their produce with the wastage. Mr. Reddy stated that although paddy was being harvested with the help of machines the chaff and other wastage was coming into the grain since blowers would not remove the entire wastage.
Stating that deduction of 4 to 6 kg per quintal of paddy in the name of chaff or other wastage was wrong, the RBS chairman said most of the farmers were getting their produce with the wastage as winnowing of the produce was not being done. As the millers were putting the sample grain collected from paddy bags in water and removing the weight of wastage and chaff before accepting the stock from the procurement centres, the farmers themselves were asking the procurement staff to deduct the weight of chaff.
He, however, stated 64 kg bags were not in use as was being reported but only 40 kg bags were in use and the weight of gunny bag was deducted as 600 grams. He also appealed to the farmers to keep the moisture content in paddy below 17%.
Meanwhile, over 5.8 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured till April 18 from 4,206 procurement centres and over 1.22 lakh tonnes of maize was purchased from 884 centres.