Haryana surpasses wheat procurement target with a fortnight to spare
Haryana wheat procurement reached 76.57 LMT against arrivals of 82.72 LMT, driven by high-yielding varieties, favourable weather, and low disease incidence. Farmers received ₹10,863 crore so far. Sirsa led procurement, while officials warned of possible storage constraints despite adequate arrangements and additional space planning.
As per the state government’s e-kharid portal, wheat procurement touched 76.57 LMT till 7 pm, while total arrivals reached 82.72 LMT.
While farmers are elated by the development, wheat scientists attribute the robust procurement to high-yielding varieties, favourable weather conditions and low disease incidence. Ratan Tiwari, Director at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), said that new, high-yielding, and climate-resilient varieties have largely been adopted in the region, and farmers followed guidelines issued by various stakeholders for timely sowing, irrigation and harvesting.
Last year, total arrival was 75.61 LMT, out of which 72.41 LMT was procured, with the rest going to private buyers. In 2024-25, the arrival stood at 73.61 LMT, of which 71.50 LMT was purchased.
Portal data also showed that 68% of the procured grain has been lifted so far, while the government has disbursed ₹10,863 crore to 5,20,804 farmers–54% of the total purchase–with the remaining payments under approval.
Sirsa topped the state in procurement with 9.19 LMT purchased across 106 centres, followed by Karnal, which purchased 7.87 LMT of wheat and Jind at 7.55 LMT.
Kaithal recorded procurement of 6.65 LMT, followed by Fatehabad (6.36 LMT), Hissar (5.33 LMT) and Kurukshetra (5.05 LMT).
Karnal also topped the table in terms of payment disbursed at ₹1340.87 crore, followed by Kaithal ( ₹1174.54 crore) and Sirsa ( ₹1126.49 crore).
Three agencies—HAFED, Haryana State Warehousing Corporation and Food Corporation of India (FCI)—are procuring wheat at the minimum support price (MSP) fixed at ₹2,585 per quintal.
Haryana ranks second in wheat production in the country and contributes about 25% of the wheat to the central pool.
Amit Sharma, a farmer from Kutail village in Karnal, said, “We were expecting a good production this year and it has happened. Though the purchase process was a bit harsh at the mandis, the government has made everything transparent to reduce corruption.”
Wazir Singh, Karnal’s deputy director of agriculture (DDA), said that despite some scattered cases of crop lodging due to hailstorm or rain, weather conditions during the grain-filling stage remained favourable, even with some hotter weeks in February-March.
Officials, however, cautioned that higher arrivals and procurement could create storage issues in various districts, with grains potentially lying in the open during rains.
Karnal deputy commissioner Dr Anand Kumar Sharma said that although they have enough storage facilities available, they have already identified more space and demanded special rakes from the concerned authorities.
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Source : Hindustan Times
