Farmers worried about the quality of wheat due to the weather turning suddenly hot may hope to get some relief. At present they are finding it difficult to sell wheat as its grains have shrivelled in many regions, especially in North India, due to an unusually hot March. Bearing this in mind, the Union government is considering the proposal that if the shrivelled grain percentage was up to 20 per cent in the total wheat, there would be no reduction in procurement price and the farmers would be paid the full Minimum Support Price (MSP). According to sources, a decision may be taken in this regard soon.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has urged the Centre, in view of the vagaries of the weather, to relax norms for shrivelled grains in the purchase of wheat from the state without imposing any value cut. Wheat growers have reported a drop in crop yield and shrivelled grains because of the early onset of the heatwave. According to Mann, he had spoken to Union Home minister Amit Shah and Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard and requested them to allow relaxations based on the field data.
The Chief Minister said that the central teams had assessed the situation a week ago and submitted their reports to the ministry. The report highlighted the extent of the shrivelling of the grain. According to Mann, it was worrying that the Union government had taken no decision despite this.
Chief Minister Mann said that it would be completely unfair to blame farmers and penalize them for shrivelled grains, as this was beyond the control of the growers. He said that the Food Corporation of India was not accepting the shrivelled wheat due to non-finalisation of relaxation in norms, thereby sort of choking the grain markets.
The procurement has started somewhat earlier this year in comparison to other years. 71.5 lakh tonnes of wheat has been procured in Punjab up to April 23. This is the same as the procurement last year, but in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, the procurement is nearly half that last year. In Uttar Pradesh, only 77,000 tonnes of wheat has been procured so far in comparison to more than 6 lakh tonnes procured by the same time last year.
However, thanks to the demand in the international market this year, private traders are buying more wheat at the domestic level for export purposes. As a result, farmers are getting prices much higher than MSP. The MSP of wheat is Rs 2,015 per tonne while there are reports that traders have purchased wheat at Rs 2,600-Rs 2,700 per quintal in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The government procured about 434 lakh tonnes of wheat last year. It has fixed a target of procuring 444 lakh tonnes this year. But it seems too difficult to attain this target in view of the present situation.