Pakistan’s rice growers complain of ‘unjustified deductions’ by millers

Paddy harvesting started only last month in the lower Sindh region, and farmers — mostly small landholders — are already complaining about “unjustified deductions” by rice millers. While the Lower Sindh region has been growing restless for quite some time, the Sindh agriculture department has not yet offered any relief via enforcing or ensuring quality parameters on farmers and millers.

Rice cultivation figures (2,103,608 acres or 851,300 hectares) in 2025 surpassed the sowing target of 1,976,843 acres or 800,000 ha in Sindh. Lower Sindh districts, including Tando Mohammad Khan, Badin, Sujawal and Thatta, are known paddy-growing areas, though the crop is also cultivated in regions along the left bank of the River Indus, where rice sowing has always been banned by the government.

The present deductions by rice millers are being linked to moisture content in the crop. During the milling process, mill owners produce regular rice with a certain ratio of broken rice as well. Based on the moisture content in the crop, millers deduct from the crop’s weight at will during production, as no proper regulatory framework exists to ensure farmers aren’t shortchanged. Paddy is, after all, a water-guzzling crop like sugarcane and thus consumes plenty of water.

Farmers’ cries against such deductions seem understandable considering the fact that the farm sector has been witnessing unusual conditions, especially after the provincial government’s decision against fixing a support price for wheat and an indicative price for sugarcane in the last couple of years.

The official rate of paddy has rarely ever been fixed. Another cash crop, cotton, also experienced several issues: lower yields and inadequate prices. Ginners didn’t offer reasonable prices to growers considering their cost of production; hence, cotton’s production has declined.

Since the provincial government didn’t procure wheat in the 2024-25 season, its price fell to as low as Rs2,200 per 40kg early this year, but now it was being sold for Rs3,600 to Rs3,700 per 40kg. In the 2023-24 season, the government had procured wheat for Rs4,000 per 40kg.

In the absence of some regulatory regime, growers now feel that they have been denied a just rate for their paddy crop while being subjected to unfair deductions by millers.

In the Tando Mohammad Khan district, the allowable moisture content limit was fixed at 22pc at a recent meeting of millers and paddy growers which was chaired by the deputy commissioner. However, neither the agriculture extension nor the research department has intervened to rescue farmers across Sindh in order to protect their legitimate interests. The agriculture department has not issued any guidelines for determining moisture limits in the crop for Sindh-wide implementation.

“Rice millers or middlemen usually manually check the crop to determine the level of moisture. The moisture meters are either defective or simply not used by millers; thus, farmers remain at the mercy of these players and sell their crop for lower prices,” said Sindh Abadgar Board president Nawab Zubair Talpur after leading a farmers’ protest in Tando Mohammad Khan district last week.

There were cases, Mr Talpur said, in which contrasting levels of moisture content were determined at two separate mills in the crop of a farmer that point to the fact that moisture meters were not properly calibrated.

According to a technical officer of the agriculture department, Khuda Bux Kalwar, rice millers were not justified in deducting paddy crop because a crop with 12–14pc moisture is ideal for milling. For storage purposes, he said, a crop with 13pc moisture was also recommended.

Sindh Abadgar Board President Mahmood Nawaz Shah pointed out that paddy crop prices have been falling for the last few years. The rate dropped from Rs3,600 to Rs2,900 or Rs2,600 per 40kg in the last few years. Now there were common complaints that farmers were being offered Rs2,200 per 40kg by millers.

“Farmers don’t oppose setting quality standards, but that doesn’t mean that these restrictions should be used as a punishment. There has to be some transparency in the determination of the produce’s cost,” Mr Shah asserted, regretting that no authority or department takes care of these issues, leaving farmers at the mercy of market players.

Some progressive growers concede that farmers also do not observe moisture control protocols and supply grain with upto 30pc moisture content. Resultantly such supplies were subjected to around 4–5kg deductions per 40kg. However, farmers supplying crops with acceptable moisture content were not spared either.

Abdul Haq, a farmer from the lower Sindh region, said he even bought his own moisture meter, which shows a 19pc moisture content in his crops, but when he took it to a mill, the management claimed that moisture content was at 24pc.

Millers were accused of cartelisation as far as prices were concerned. Since the crop was being supplied in larger quantities at the start of the season, the millers were not offering reasonable prices. Abdul Haq further explained that millers also get by products out of paddy, ie husk, broken rice and powder, which, being saleable commodities in the retail market, enable growers to make an extra buck, and their cost was not reflected in paddy’s rate offered to growers. Farooq Cheepa, president of the Lower Sindh Rice Millers Association, could not be reached for his viewpoint despite repeated calls, while Mohan Lal, a rice miller, said he had leased out his mill.

Tags: broken rice, prices, rice, Production, yields, crop, paddy, cultivation, millers