'In Bid To Combat Weather Chaos And Corruption, Chhattisgarh Must Reform Its Rice Procurement Policy'

Raipur: The conventional patterns of weather have moved throughout the country. May feels like August, not just in Delhi, but many parts from Jaipur to Lucknow.

Our rain pattern is also shifting, with untimely rains in the March and dry spells in the August and October. Simply put we can’t trust the weather, along with our weather forecasting systems. So this creates a big problem for our rain-fed farmers do? Especially rain fed paddy farmers in areas like Chhattisgarh which have steady paddy procurement state policy and plagued by gaps in the procurement policy.

Let us explore this, Chhattisgarh is literally called the “rice bowl” as it has a high concentration of paddy fields and farmers growing paddy in the Kharif season. Now the surprising thing is that 80% of the farmers are rain fed, meaning they irrigate their paddy with the help of the rains. Only 20% have means of irrigation. The state has about 3.7 million ha under rice cultivation, covering both uplands and shallow lowlands. The state average productivity is about 1.3 tonnes/ha whereas the rain-fed farmers average to 1 -1.3 tonnes per hectare.

Keeping this in mind, let’s look at the state paddy procurement policy. In 2026, the average limit for paddy procurement per acre is 21 quintal (2.1 ton). That is between 10-8 quintals (1-.7 tonnes) higher than the average paddy yields in the state. On the same time the government also hoped to gather 73 lakh metric tonnes of the paddy in the previous ‘25-‘26 season. Now during this paddy procurement drive, like many previous years, the state police and district administration across Chhattisgarh and especially in the border districts reported numerous illegal paddy shipments.

Mostly this rice was being carted into Chhattisgarh and being sold as Chhattisgarh rice at the government MSP of Rs 3,100 quintal. Various investigations reported have confirmed the presence of local nexus between inter-state traders and farmers bypassing the government and selling illegal rice into the state’s ration system.

The gap in the state’s procurement policy is the sole reason for such a nexus to emerge. In the current system each farmer usually has a under-utilised procurement quota by a ton, and middle men use this extra cushion to get paddy from other states and sell it under a local farmers’ names. 1 ton of extra rice can fetch the trader and the farmers around Rs 31,000 as an additional bonus.

Due to a lucrative procurement scheme, many privateers have unfairly profited from the system. The consequence of their profiteering is ecological and social. Ecological first because heavy paddy cultivation is draining the water resources of Chhattisgarh. It is also leading to encroachment of river beds and other forest areas.

The state financially incentivises paddy hence all farmers are trying to grow as much paddy as possible. Biodiversity of these areas is also suffering tremendously, as farmers are choosing to grow paddy instead of native crops, trees and seed varieties. They are forcing an unsustainable industrial agriculture model on their farms and society, which has a huge ecological costs measured in losses of water, seed and plant biodiversity, soil health, etc.

The social cost is corruption, not only are people willingly moving away from the environmental values of their society, but now are embracing corrupt practices of environmental destruction and inviting monetary corruption into society. The state government’s welfare scheme is being looted with the help of the same people it hoped to ameliorate.

So what can the state government do? Firstly, in the relation to better crop planning especially this kharif 2025-26, the government should announce a reduced procurement policy which is in line with the state average. In fact to clean out the discrepancies, each district can reveal its average paddy production and a reassessment can be made on the more realistic paddy state procurement average. This will be in line with agro-climatic limits of the state and will discourage out of state paddy to reach Chhattisgarh’s procurement centres.

This decision should be made keeping the erratic weather and Super El Niño year in mind. But despite the weather limitations, this step could easily become a politically charged issue. Hence the policy makers, need to also add a few more steps to the policy. First along them, should be that Chhattisgarh state procurement will only be buying rice/paddy of Chhattisgarh origin and diversity. The state should prefer native varieties or land races of paddy.

This step will ensure that out of the state paddy will have higher chance of rejection and also improve the conservation of seed biodiversity in Chhattisgarh. Second, to avert the political situation, the government should reduce the paddy quota but introduce procurement of local millets, legumes or oilseeds. This way the farmers incomes are not dropping and they get a chance to grow another crop which is more climate resilient and conserves water.

Millets can even grow in low water areas and hence are potentially suitable for many parts of Chhattisgarh. If these steps are taken, the Chhattisgarh policy makers will reduce corruption and ecological damage and ensure food security and diversity of the public food system. The government also needs to check the land records for the transactions and should not procure paddy grown in encroached areas.

The paddy traders and millers should also be given strict instructions to no allow out of state paddy for the procurement season and violation of such will attract not fines but heavy fines and suspension of trading licenses. Chhattisgarh also houses the international rice research institute and the government should ensure that more climate resilient varieties reach the farmers, so the state food production is climate proof.

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