As a result, the price of rabi rice, which started to arrive in the market, has dropped by 10% compared with kharif rice.
However, the heatwave is impacting the production of rice-bran oil as oil manufacturers are facing a shortage of labour. Rice-bran oil is manufactured by extracting the hard outer brown layer of the rice, which is known as bran. This has to be done within 24 hours of harvesting the paddy.
This year, the acreage under rabi paddy has been less by 1.07% to 39.29 lakh hectares compared with 40.37 lakh hectares in the previous season, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. Production of rabi rice is estimated at 123.57 lakh metric tonnes this year, according to government estimates.
“However, the yield has been good this year for the rabi crop. The current heatwave is helping to dry up the moisture in the rice and improving the quality. We do not have to use an artificial dryer to dry up the rice. The traders can store it for long and the crop will not be damaged due to moisture content,” said Suraj Agarwal, chief executive of RiceVilla, a rice marketing and exporting firm.
The grain breaks if there is moisture in it. Domestically, the demand for broken rice is very less in metro cities though it is consumed in rural parts of India. The trade is not very keen on broken rice as the government has completely banned the export of 100% broken rice in September 2022 to keep a lid on local prices.Rabi paddy is mainly cultivated in West Bengal, Assam, north-eastern states, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.Sunil Kumar, owner of Aaryapoorna Rice Mill in Bihar’s Dulhin Bazar area, said: “The heatwave has been beneficial to the rabi paddy crop which is almost harvested. But the problem that we are facing is in the production of rice-bran oil. Due to the heatwave, we are not being able to get labourers to produce rice-bran oil.”
Kumar’s factory also produces rice-bran oil.
India produces 10.5 lakh tonnes of rice-bran oil annually.
BV Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors Association of India, said: “The quality of rice-bran oil deteriorates if it is not extracted from the bran within 24 hours. Rising temperatures and heatwave have become an issue for getting workers. But companies are actively looking to sort it out.”