{Wheat procurement in Haryana} Mandis witnessed zero crop arrival on first day

The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department of Haryana on Tuesday officially began the wheat procurement at 415 purchase centres in the state.

However, there was no arrival of crop recorded at any of the centre, officials said.

Haryana has set a target to procure 75 lakh metric tonne (MT) wheat of the total production of about 116.24 lakh MT, at the minimum support price (MSP) fixed at ₹2,425 per quintal.

According to the agriculture department, wheat has been sown in an area of 24.63 lakh hectares.

As part of the rabi marketing season, procurement for barley and gram also started on the day at 25 and 11 centres respectively, in the state.

The authorities have claimed to have arrangements in place; however, the commission agents have highlighted the lack of amenities.

Rajnish Chaudhary, president of the Karnal Arhtiyas’ Association, said that the department is yet to finalise the transport and labour contractors, while the gunny bags have also not been delivered at the grain markets.

On the other hand, experts at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) said that the wheat harvesting will pick up pace after a rise in temperature later this week.

Rattan Tiwari, director of the institute said that harvesting for the early sown variety (October) will begin this week in Haryana-Punjab belt, timely soon (November) by April 10 to Baisakhi and late sown (December and later) by end of this month.

“As per the fields visits by our scientists and local inputs, the crop is largely very good and record production target will easily be achieved,” he added.