With an objective of ensuring good prices for its farmers' produce, the Punjab government today urged the Centre to immediately lift the ban imposed on the export of all non-basmati variety of rice and categorise PUSA 1121 as a basmati variety.
This request has been made in a communication sent by the Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon to the Minister of Commerce Kamal Nath.
In the communication, it was requested that in view of the ongoing procurement of paddy in the state, the Union Government should lift the ban so as to enable the rice millers of the state to make purchases of the superior grade 'A' non-basmati varieties from the markets.
"This step would, on the one hand enable the farmers to get higher prices for their produce and on the other help the millers to earn valuable foreign exchange for the country. This would give much needed impetus to the industrial economy of the Punjab in the present time of recession," Kairon pointed out.
Keeping in view the dire financial conditions of the Punjab farmers, the Punjab food civil supplies minister urged the central government to lift the ban at the earliest so that the benefit of this could reach them.