Standards of Paddy

MANUAL ON STANDARDS OF PADDY

1. INTRODUCTION

             Promotion of standardization and grading of agricultural commodities is an important aspect of agricultural marketing. The agricultural commodities are heterogeneous and hence it is very essential to grade these commodities as per standards to command better price either at domestic or international market. Sale of Paddy is offered on the basis of variety, wholesomeness, appearance, colour, presence of foreign matter, damaged grains, broken grains, admixture of inferior variety, moisture, harmful contaminants, etc.  A quality grain is that which meets the end user specifications with respect to range of pre-determined Quality and Safety standards.

2. OBJECTIVE

 The Manual has been designed with the objectives to

                                 i.            Create awareness about standards prescribed by various organizations for domestic and international markets so as to raise quality consciousness among the farmers, entrepreneurs and other market functionaries with the objective to equip them to face the global competition in the post WTO era.

                               ii.            provide details of various parameters responsible for quality; and

                              iii.            describe the advantages of grading & standardization so that farmers may get prices commensurate with quality produced by them.

3. IMPORTANT PARAMETERS RESPONSIBLE FOR QUALITY

3.1 Following Parameters are important in determination of QUALITY of Paddy

·         Wholesomeness, appearance, colour      

·         Foreign matter(organic and inorganic)

·         Damaged grains

·         Broken grains

·         Immature/Shriveled grains

·         Weevilled grains

·         Admixture

·         Moisture content

          

3.2 Following SAFETY parameters are important:

 ·         Pesticides residue

·         Poisonous/Heavy metals

·         Aflatoxin

·         Uric acid

·         Microbial load

3.3 Parameters by which  grades of Paddy are differentiated

Important parameters by which grades can be differentiated in case of paddy are

·         foreign matter

·         Admixture

·         Damaged/Immature/Weevilled grains

4. STANDARDS APPLICABLE FOR PURCHASES BY FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA (FCI)

 4.1 The main objectives of  the FCI are

a)      Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers.

b)      Distribution of foodgrains throughout the country for Public Distribution System and other Govt. of India schemes, and

c)      Maintaining satisfactory level of operational/buffer stocks of foodgrains to ensure national food security.

4.2 To meet these obligations, the FCI makes purchases of paddy and for this purpose, following standards for all varieties of paddy are applicable.

 UNIFORM SPECIFICATION FOR ALL VARIETIES OF PADDY ( MARKETING SEASON 2004-2005 )

             Paddy shall be in sound merchantable condition, dry, clean, wholesome, of good food value, uniform in colour and size of grains and free from moulds, weevils, obnoxious smell, Argemone maxicana, Lathyrus sativus (kesari), admixture of deleterious substances.

              

Sl.No.	Refractions	Maximum Limits(%)
1.	Foreign matter
	a) Inorganic	1.0
	b) Organic	1.0
2	Damaged, discoloured, sprouted and weevilled grains	3.0
3	Immature, Shrunken and shriveled grains	3.0
4	Admixture of lower class	8.0
5	Moisture	17.0

NOTE: Within the overall limit of 1.0% for organic foreign matter, poisonous seeds shall not exceed 0.5% of which Dhatura and Akra seeds (Vicia species) not to exceed  0.025% and 0.2% respectively.

DEFINITIONS

Foreign Matter : Includes inorganic and organic matter.  The inorganic matter shall include sand, gravel, dirt, pebbles, stones, glass and metallic pieces, lumps of earth, clay and mud.  Organic matter shall include husk, chaff, straw, weed seeds and other inedible grains.  Paddy shall be considered as foreign matter in commodities other than paddy.

 Damaged : Kernels or pieces of kernels that are sprouted or internally damaged as a result of heat, moisture, weather or microbes.

Discoloured:Kernels or pieces of  kernels that have changed the colour as a result of deteriorative changes.

 Weeviled Grains : Weeviled grains are grain kernels that are partially or wholly bored by insects injurious to grain but do not include germ-eaten grains and egg-spotted grains.

 Immature : Kernels or pieces of grain kernels that are not fully developed.

 Varietal Admixture:The presenceof a varietyof the same grain other than the variety in consideration.

 Moisture:The loss in mass caused as a result of heating for two hours at 130 to 1330C under specified conditions and expressed as percentage.

5. STANDARDS APPLICABLE FOR STORAGE OF PADDY

5.1 CENTRAL WAREHOUSING CORPORATION (CWC) :The CWC works as an agent of the government for  purchase, sale, storage and distribution of agricultural and industrial commodities, seeds, fertilizers and notified commodities for individual, cooperatives and other institutions in the country.  CWC provides modern efficient warehousing to ensure maximum returns to the growers with better opportunities. It provides scientific facilities to the farmers for the stock of agricultural produce at a reasonable cost.  CWC issues Warehouse Receipts to a person depositing goods in the warehouse.  The banking institutions accept the Warehouse Receipts as co-lateral security for grant of loans to the holder of the Warehouse Receipt on its being endorsed and delivered to them.   Thus, warehousing plays an active role in marketing and also provides socio-economic gains to the farmers, who otherwise get exploited by the middlemen and are forced to have distress sales. 

5.1.1 Standards of Central Warehousing Corporation

Central Warehousing Corporation follows Standards given in Item 4.3.2 for accepting paddy for storage in the warehouses.

In addition, CWC has following categorization for deciding the period of storability of paddy  in the warehouses.

 Percentage of Weevilled grains :

Upto     1%                               A

Above 1% upto 4%                  B

Above 4% upto 7%                  C

Above 7% upto 15%                D

In order to have better storability of paddy farmers are  advised to ensure that paddy for storage has Weevilled grains less than 1% (by count).