Despite weather vagaries, wheat arrival beats last year’s record
In what appears to be a record of sorts, the wheat arrival in district’s grain markets has already beaten last year’s figures, the administration has said.
The development assumes significance as the weather vagaries, which included intermittent rains coupled with thunderstorm and gusty winds, had hit the standing wheat crop hard at the far end of the ripening stage. Almost the entire stock of grains that had so far arrived across 13 mandis of the district has already been purchased and the payments for the same made to farmers.
Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik told The Tribune here on Tuesday that as many as 8,02,917 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat had arrived in the district’s mandis till Monday evening, of which 8,02,759 MT, which accounted for 99.98 per cent of the total arrival, had been purchased and a sum of Rs 1,682.55 crore paid to farmers as per the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government.She added that five government agencies, including Centre’s Food Corporation of India (FCI), have been roped in to buy wheat stocks from the mandis in the district. Besides, the private agencies are also procuring grains.
“We have made elaborate arrangements to facilitate farmers at all purchase centres to ensure early purchase, swift lifting and timely payment for the procured stocks,” Malik said, adding that senior officials of the district administration had been asked to visit mandis on a regular basis to ensure that farmers faced no hardship.
Pungrain leads in procurement
While Pungrain was leading with the maximum wheat procurement, the FCI remained the laggard with the least purchase of grains in Ludhiana so far.
The agency-wise procurement figures revealed that Pungrain had bought 2,16,038 MT wheat, followed by Punsup at 1,83,640 MT, Markfed at 1,82,281 MT, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) at 1,15,726 MT. The FCI had so far procured 36,685 MT grain. Private agencies had purchased 68,390 MT of wheat across the district so far.
Record beaten
The arrival of 8,02,917 MT wheat this year has beaten the record of last year when 6,90,081 MT of grains had arrived in the district during the corresponding period. This year’s arrivals were already 16.35 per cent more than previous year till date.
Total purchase
Of the total 8,02,917 MT wheat, as many as 8,02,759 MT had already been purchased, which accounted for almost total procurement, or precisely 99.98 per cent of the total arrival.
The swiftness with which the purchased wheat stocks was being lifted from the grain markets was evident from the fact that 6,77,980 MT of the total 8,02,759 MT of the purchased grains had already been lifted by procurement agencies. This accounted for 84.46 per cent of the total purchased wheat.
Timely payments
The procurement agencies were making timely payments to the farmers for their purchased wheat. According to the agency-wise payment schedule, Pungrain had so far paid Rs 456 crore, Punsup had paid Rs 389.42 crore, Markfed Rs 377.77 crore, PSWC Rs 241.46 crore, FCI Rs 72.52 crore and the private agencies had also made payments worth Rs 145.33 crore to the farmers of the district.
Over 84% lifting of produce so far
The swiftness with which the purchased wheat stocks was being lifted from the grain markets was evident from the fact that 6,77,980 MT of the total 8,02,759 MT of the purchased grains had already been lifted by procurement agencies. This accounted for 84.46 per cent of the total purchased wheat.
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