State’s loss is Haryana’s grain gain

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 3

The diversion of wheat from Punjab to Haryana to get prompt payment and fall in yield of the main rabi crop could be responsible for the state not meeting its target of wheat procurement this year. As against the original target of procuring 129 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of wheat from the state, the procurement is expected to be around 105 LMT.

Till last night, 102.07 LMT of wheat had been procured by state agencies and the FCI in the state. Though this figure is more than the wheat procured on the corresponding day last year (82 LMT), sources said that last year the season peaked late because of rains in March.

The fall in procurement figures is mainly because a large quantity of wheat from Punjab has been sold in neighbouring Haryana this year. It is estimated that over 6 LMT of wheat from the state has been sold in Haryana as payments to farmers in the state were not made till April 22.

In Haryana, the procurement till date is 63.31 LMT as against 57.55 LMT last year despite almost 90,000 hectare fall in the area under wheat. This proves that wheat from Punjab villages along the 250 km inter-state border has been sold in Haryana.

“As a result, there has been a fall in the total wheat procured in Punjab. Punjab was targeting procurement of 129 LMT. But the high temperature in December and rains in February led to the Ministry of Agriculture revising the wheat production and procurement targets. Punjab then revised its procurement target to 111 LMT,” said a senior government official.

Interestingly, while officials in the Union Ministry of Food and in FCI feel that the crop yield has fallen by around 5 per cent this year, the government claims otherwise.

Agriculture minister Tota Singh says that the yield was low only in some districts where farmers had not watered the fields in March.

J S Bains, Director, Agriculture, said that the crop harvesting experiments, currently underway, are showing a higher quality crop and yield between 18-20 LMT. He feels that the reason for fall in procurement would only be diversion of the crop to Haryana.