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Wheat Procurement in Punjab: In the current rabi marketing season, wheat procurement in Punjab is expected to be better at 120 lakh metric tonnes than last year’s 120 lakh metric tonnes, although the crop has suffered due to bad weather.
An official of the Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Department said that in view of the ongoing arrival of crops in the state’s grain markets, Punjab is expected to procure 120 lakh metric tonnes of wheat for the central pool.
This purchase will be more than last year’s purchase of 96.47 lakh metric tonnes. The crop was adversely affected due to sudden rise in mercury during March. In March and April this year, unseasonal rains accompanied by hail and strong winds have caused heavy damage to wheat and other crops in many places in Punjab, including Fazilka, Muktsar, Moga and Patiala districts.
Bad weather affected about 14 lakh hectares out of the total area of 34.90 lakh hectares and it was estimated that the overall yield of the crop would be adversely affected. However, during crop harvesting experiments, the state agriculture department observed an average yield of 47.24 quintals per hectare or 19 quintals per acre.
With the results of cropping experiments, the department expects wheat production to be 160-165 lakh metric tonnes. The yield of 19 quintals per acre is the long-term average for the whole of Punjab. A senior official of the Punjab Agriculture Department said that therefore the total yield loss will not be as much as we were expecting earlier.
However, there will be yield loss in some areas of some districts, the official added. Punjab had seen a total yield of 48 quintals per hectare in 2021 and around 44 quintals per hectare in 2022.
Due to inclement weather, farmers complained of shriveled and broken grains and loss of luster. This prompted the Punjab government to relax the rules for procurement of wheat from the Centre.
The limit of shriveled and broken grains was relaxed to 18 per cent under uniform specifications by the Centre. The state government has also increased the compensation for crop damage by 25 percent. About 65 percent of the total wheat area of 34.90 lakh hectares has been harvested by the farmers in the ongoing marketing season of rubber.
According to an official of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, 60.86 lakh metric tons of crops have arrived in the state so far. Out of this, 54.91 lakh metric tonnes have been procured by government agencies and 2.50 lakh metric tonnes by private traders.
The official said that about 6 lakh metric tons of wheat is coming in the markets every day. As the harvesting of the crop has been delayed due to bad weather, the arrival of the crop may go beyond April.
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