Govt to relax norms for wheat procurement in Punjab and Haryana
Taking a cue from Madhya Pradesh government’s move, the Union government will announce the relaxation in quality parameters for wheat procurement in Punjab and Haryana after its team visited the states to assess crop damage due to recent unseasonal rains and thunderstorms at few places.
Sources told FE that the food ministry team found that at various locations in Punjab and Haryana moisture content in wheat arriving in mandis was as high as 20% and the grains had suffered lustre loss as well.
Under the fair and average quality standards, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies purchase wheat at Minimum Support Price (MSP) with a maximum moisture content of 12%.
Last week, the Punjab government in a communication to the food ministry sought a relaxation in specification of wheat procurement by allowing purchase of 6% damaged grain, up to 12% slightly damaged grains, up to 15% broken grains and 100% lustre loss.
The food ministry on March 31 had relaxed procurement norms, by allowing purchase of grains with lustre losses above 10% from farmers in Madhya Pradesh with a marginal value cut of only Rs 5.31/quintal against the MSP of Rs 2,125/quintal for the current season.
“This relaxation in norms would help farmers against distress sale of the grain which has been impacted by rains this month,” a food ministry official had said.
The FCI and state agencies till Saturday purchased around 0.7 million tonne (MT) of wheat since the MSP operations for the current season officially commenced from April 1.
Most of the wheat purchased from farmers in the current marketing season (April-June) has been from Madhya Pradesh while a small quantity of grain has been procured in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Officials said that arrivals and procurement of wheat are expected to gather momentum by the middle of this month as unseasonal rainfall since mid-March in key wheat growing states caused damages to crops in some places besides delaying harvest.
The government’s wheat procurement last year fell by more than 56.6% to 18.8 MT against 43.3 MT purchased in 2021 because output due to spike in March temperature and increase in private purchase because of global demand.
The government has stated that it is hopeful of a record wheat production of 112 MT in the current crop season (July-June), while ruling out any major reduction in grain output from recent unseasonal rains in key states.
Meanwhile, the Roller Flour Millers’ Federation of India, in a survey report, had predicted the wheat production of 102.89 MT in the current crop year.
The wheat held with FCI has dropped to 8.51 MT just above the buffer of 7.4 MT for April 1. The wheat stock is at present lowest since 2017.
To replenish the stock, the FCI and state agencies have to purchase at least 30 MT of wheat in the April-June 2023 season from farmers so that sufficient quantity of grains is available for the implementation of the National Food Security Act and creation of adequate buffer stock. FCI needs to have a buffer of 27.57 MT of wheat by July 1.
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