Bengal Rice Bowl’s East Burdwan is witnessing a surge in the prices of aromatic rice as traders and consumers are grappling to handle the crisis. According to traders and rice millers, the crisis is caused by unauthorised hoarding of paddy and incessant rains. The East Burdwan district administration has noted the crisis. In addition, District Magistrate Ayesha Rani stated that they have started an investigation to determine the actual reasons behind this and to work towards a solution.
Surprisingly, the price per kilogram of aromatic rice like Basmati and Gobindabhog has now risen to Rs 190, up from just Rs 50 in the first week of January. Dasrath Prasad Agarwal, owner of a rice mill dedicated to processing aromatic rice in Burdwan, stated: “The price has increased to this level in just three months and has gone out of control over the past 45 days. In our district, 70 mills work exclusively with aromatic rice; of these, 45 supply the domestic market, while 25 produce for export.”
Notably, due to a critical demand-supply imbalance, Basmati has risen to 2.5 times its earlier level in the retail market, whereas the price of Gobindabhog rice has doubled. Exports to the Middle East and southern Indian states have further reinforced the shortage in the domestic market. Farmers who are expecting further price hikes do not want to release their stocks. In March, a 60 kg bag of numerous aromatic paddy varieties was priced between ₹2,700 and ₹3,000; farmers are now selling it at Rs 7,200.
Biswajit Mallik, secretary of the Bengal Paddy Traders’ Association in Burdwan, said: “In the last Kharif season, Gobindabhog and Basmati saw lower yields, prompting farmers to hoard their produce.” Besides this, he is afraid of decreased cultivation in this season, citing that unrelenting rains for 50 days have destroyed sowing, and more than 25 per cent of farmland earmarked for aromatic paddy has not been sown yet .” In India, the aromatic rice has just grown in five districts of Bengal. Amar Kumar Mondal, deputy director of agriculture, believes that East Burdwan cultivates aromatic paddy on 45,000 hectares, with an average yield of around 3 metric tonnes per hectare.