Rain-battered wheat not ready for harvest in Punjab
Chandigarh : With untimely rains accompanied by high-velocity winds and hailstorm in the past fortnight delaying harvesting, mandis across Punjab are yet to see arrival of wheat, even as procurement of the major rabi crop started in the state on April 1.
According to official data, except for a procurement centre at Rajpura, none of the 1,871 mandis in the state witnessed arrival of wheat.
Experts say that due to rains, the ready-to-harvest crop is still lodged and there is water in fields. They say it will take at least 10-15 days for the crop to be ready again for harvest. “We are expecting rrivals to pick up in the second and third week of the month,” said an official of the state food department. “We have made all arrangement for procurement as ₹29,000 crore has been received from the Centre as the cash credit limit (CCL) for paying minimum support price (MSP) to farmers for wheat. There is adequate stock of gunny bags in the state,” said the official.
Last year, the wheat arrival picked up in first week of April. In some areas of the state, farmers unloaded their stocks in mandis by March-end, said an official.
The state food department, which procures wheat through four state run agencies — Pungrain, Punsup, State Warehousing Corporation and Markfed — along with the Centre’s Food Corporation of India (FCI), expects an arrival of 110-110 lakh tonnes of grain this season. The yield is expected to fall by at least 20% as two spells of rain and high-velocity winds in the last two weeks have led to lodging of the crop by about 40%. Wheat has been sown over 34.9 lakh hectares in the state this year.
Before the weather conditions deteriorated two weeks ago, the state agriculture department had predicted a bumper crop with a total yield of 165-170 lakh tonnes, which is now apprehended to fall to 130 lakh tonnes.
According to the officials in the state agriculture department central teams are expected to visit the state to access the loss. “Experts from the Indian institute of Wheat and Barley Research toured the state and have put their stamp on the assessment of losses done by the department,” said director agriculture Gurvinder Singh. The state food department has also asked the Union ministry of agriculture and public distribution to allow relaxation in wheat procurement norms due to lustre loss and shrivelled grain.
BKU Rajewal seeks ₹ 80,000 per acre compensation
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) president BS Rejewal on Sunday demanded a compensation of ₹80,000 per acre for crop loss due to rains. He said 70% of the total crop area has suffered 100% loss. “This is an economic crisis for the state farmers and the government should announce adequately compensation,” he said.
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