Tough time for procurement agencies to tackle wheat glut
With the grain markets full to the brim with wheat, the procurement agencies are having a tough time lifting the grain from the markets in proportion to the arrival and procurement of wheat in the mandis.
Officials of the procurement agencies said there was a shortage of labour for loading and unloading wheat bags in the trucks to ferry the stock to the godowns. Besides, the officials maintained that the sudden arrival of the wheat stock from April 10 in the mandis had left procurement agencies with little time to make preparations for the loading and unloading of the stocks in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Labour shortage adds to woes
- Officials said there was shortage of labour for loading and unloading wheat bags in trucks to ferry stock to godowns
- There was a sudden arrival of wheat stock from April 10 in the mandis. This had given procurement agencies little time to make preparations for loading and unloading of stocks
- As much as 24.47 lakh quintals had been procured till Wednesday. Out of this, only 7.35 lakh quintals were lifted
- A total of 17.12 lakh quintals of purchased wheat was lying in mandis besides the unsold stock which is piling up every day
According to the data available with the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board in Hisar district, 24,47,371 quintals of wheat was procured till yesterday, of which only 7,35,204 quintals have been lifted from the grain markets, while 17,12,167 quintals of purchased wheat stock is lying in the mandis besides the unsold stock which was piling up every day.
In Sirsa district, 8,81,890 quintals of wheat had been purchased, of which 2,30,000 quintals of wheat had been lifted, while the remaining was still to be taken to the godowns for storage. Similar is the situation in Fatehabad district where 3.89 lakh quintals of wheat was purchased and 1.36 lakh quintals had been lifted so far.
A Food and Supplies official maintained that at present, labour was still engaged in agriculture works in the fields. ‘”The same people work as labour in the process of loading and unloading the stocks. So, the process is slow to the extent that a loaded truck has to wait for approximately more than an hour at the FCI godown for its turn “, he said.
Besides, the official added that due to the rain that occurred on March 31 and April 1, the procurement could start by April 10. “We could get little time for making arrangements for storage and logistics as the wheat started arriving suddenly and in bulk in the mandis after April 10. Had the arrival started by April 1 or the next couple of days, the arrival would have been slow and we could match up with the arrival and lifting”, he said, adding that the sudden increase in temperature had shortened the harvesting period by about a week this time.
Meanwhile, Sirsa DC Parth Gupta today issued instructions to the procurement agencies to step up the lifting process by engaging more labour and trucks so that the congestion in the mandis could ease up.
