Behind wheat glut in Majha, Doaba mandis, slow pace of lifting procured grains
Sangrur and Mohali districts have recorded the maximum lifting of wheat where now only 29% and 31% of the arrived wheat, respectively, is left to be transported from the mandis to the godowns.
While the procurement of wheat has already reached the final leg, its lifting from mandis is a major concern now where nearly 53% of the procured wheat is still lying in the markets. According to the records of the Punjab Mandi Board, the wheat inflow to the mandis was quite heavy, but the transportation of the procured wheat from the mandis has been slow because of a glut-like situation that has arisen in several mandis, especially in majority of the markets in Majha, Doaba and in some mandis of Malwa region.
The figures procured from the Punjab Mandi Board (PMB) revealed that 109.06 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of wheat had arrived in the mandis till April 29, out of which 108.18 LMT was procured including 104.10 LMT by the government agencies and 4 LMT by the private players.To date, 51 LMT of wheat was transported from the mandis, while 57.10 LMT of wheat was lying in the mandis.
Daily around 4.5 LMT to 5 LMT of wheat is being lifted, while the arrival had touched more than 7 LMT daily for around a week. At present, it has come down to nearly 4 LMT. In Tarn Taran, only 17% of lifting (of wheat) has taken place till date, while the remaining 83% is lying in the mandis – left in the open at most places. In Tarn Taran, hitherto, 6.61 LMT crop has arrived in the mandis.
The other three districts of the Majha region including Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot also witnessed just 17%, 37% and 52% lifting of wheat, respectively. The three districts recorded an arrival of 5.22 LMT (Amritsar), 4.83 LMT (Gurdaspur) and 45,000 tonnes (Pathankot) of wheat, respectively. In the Doaba region also, the lifting of wheat is quite slow as 65%, 58%, 57% and 55% of wheat is still lying in the mandis of Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts, respectively.
Sangrur and Mohali districts have recorded the maximum lifting of wheat where now only 29% and 31% of the arrived wheat, respectively, is left to be transported from the mandis to the godowns.
About 10.75 LMT of wheat has arrived in Sangrur which was the highest arrival of wheat recorded till date. The remaining districts of Malwa region witnessed 40% to 58% of unlifted wheat.
Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Punjab, informed that the arrival of wheat remained quite heavy in the past two weeks when around 100 LMT of wheat reached the mandis in 15 days as opposed to 90 LMT in 22 days last year.
“Given the constraints of availability of trucks and labour if all districts and all mandis are doing lifting of wheat, the maximum lifting possible in a day is about 5 LMT. But now, arrivals have slowed down. In another 3-4 days, we would have otherwise lifted 20 LMT of wheat, but the expected arrival of wheat is just about 6 LMT,” he said. Further, this year the Food Corporation of India has mandated that 32 LMT of wheat will be transported directly from mandis to other states through special trains and the movement of that will also start, soon, Gurkirat Kirpal Singh added.
