Haryana: 35-quintal yield cap may have enabled paddy inflow from UP

By Parveen Arora

The fixation of an average yield limit of 35 quintals per acre for issuing gate passes on the Meri Fasal Mera Byora (MFMB) portal may have opened the door for manipulation in paddy inflow from neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh.

Despite floods, heavy rainfall and pest attacks that brought down the actual yield to around 25 quintals per acre, the upper limit for registration on the MFMB portal remained unchanged at 35 quintals per acre. Officials and insiders say this 10-quintal gap provided scope for traders to “regularise” paddy procured from outside Haryana.

“The portal allowed farmers to register up to 35 quintals per acre, even though actual production is closer to 25 quintals. Some traders have taken advantage of this by showing excess arrivals as genuine, using bogus gate passes in the names of certain farmers,” said an official of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board.

The same yield ceiling was applied across key paddy-growing districts — Karnal, Kaithal, Ambala, Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar — all of which have reported significant yield losses this season. Yet, official procurement figures show higher arrivals than last year, a trend that contradicts field reports of damage caused by erratic weather.

Agricultural scientists, too, questioned the arbitrary fixation of the yield limit. Dr Virender Lather, former Principal Scientist at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, said: “The average yield limit of 35 quintals was fixed without any prior scientific assessment. There should have been a proper, data-based exercise so that no one could take advantage of such loopholes.”

Farmers’ unions have also alleged a nexus involving traders and some farmers behind the illegal inflow. Bahadur Singh Mehla, spokesperson of BKU (Sir Chhotu Ram), has demanded a judicial probe into the entire procurement process.

When contacted, Rajiv Mishra, Joint Director (Statistics), Department of Agriculture, said, “The 35-quintal-per-acre limit was allowed to ensure that farmers could sell their full produce easily. However, it appears that the facility might have been misused. I will raise the issue with higher authorities so that from the next season onward, the system can be made flawless.”

This article has been republished from The Tribune.