Haryana growers finding it hard to sell wheat with high moisture content
Even as procurement by Haryana government agencies started on April 1, it could not be started in most of the mandis as officials claim that the wheat coming to mandis does not fulfil the required norms for procurement. There are reports that private traders are buying wheat from growers as prices in open market are above MSP.
Wheat growers in northern districts of Haryana are facing difficulties in selling their produce on the minimum support price (MSP) due to high moisture content.
Even as procurement by government agencies started on April 1, it could not be started in most of the mandis yet as officials claim that the wheat coming to the mandis does not fulfil the required norms for procurement on MSP of ₹2,125 per quintal.
As per the figures from the Karnal district, only 450 quintal of wheat was procured in the last five days out of around 27,000 quintal wheat that arrived in various mandis of the district.
Officials said the arrival is picking up but the wheat coming to the mandis has moisture content between 15% and 18% whereas government agencies procure wheat with moisture content up to 12%.
“The wheat that I brought on Tuesday could not be procured yet due to high moisture content,” said Krishan Lal, a farmer.
He said now he had stored his produce under a shed in the Ladwa grain market of Kurukshetra district.
On the other hand, commission agents said that they have asked farmers not to bring their produce to the mandis yet as they may face problems in selling it on the MSP. “We are getting calls from farmers to bring their produce in mandis but we have requested them to wait for a few more days so that the procurement picks up,” said Sohan Lal, an arhtiya from Kurukshetra.
There are also reports that private traders are also buying wheat from farmers as the prices in the open market are above the MSP.
Officials said they are bound to follow the procurement norms by the government as the state government has set a target of procuring 85 lakh MT wheat on MSP from farmers and four procurement agencies will affect purchase of wheat in the mandis, food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department (32.50%), HAFED (42.50%), Food Corporation of India (10%) and Haryana Warehousing Corporation (15%).
The figures revealed that HAFED has procured only 217 MT wheat on MSP till Tuesday. A senior officer of the Haryana food and civil supplies department said that the procurement could not be started in most of the mandis due to high moisture content but it will pick up in the next few days as the weather is clear now.
Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala in a statement on Wednesday said that he has written to the Union minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution and demanded that the Centre should relax procurement norms as the repeated spell of rains have damaged the crop.
He said reports have suggested that the rains have caused the loss of luster in the wheat especially in Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Jind and Yamunanagar districts and a loss of yield is likely in these districts.
