Wheat procurement: Poor arrangements exposed, say Farmers

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 20

With rain in the past 24 hours in the region impeding the harvest and procurement operations, farmers and arhtiyas have complained about the poor arrangements at grain markets.

As wheat brought in the mandis got wet, procurement agencies and arhtiyas were seen struggling to provide tarpaulin covers to farmers to protect their grain. Even the procured wheat lying in open at markets also got damped.

Uncertain weather conditions coupled with tardy lifting have worried farmers. They say they are in no position to store the produce in fields because of showers and fire.

Karnail Singh of Multania village, who brought wheat to the Bathinda grain market on Monday, said because of rain, farmers were facing difficulty in threshing the crop. Even combine harvesters could not be made operational in the fields because of the wet soil.

Another farmer, Gurdarshan Singh of Bir Behman, said: “The wheat is lying in open and there is no arrangement by the district administration to provide any tarpaulins to cover the crop. We have to save our crop on our own.”

Deputy Commissioner B Srinivasan said procurement and lifting of wheat in the mandis and procurement centres was being done on time. About 3,58,413 metric tonnes of wheat has arrived and 3,13,156 metric tonnes has been procured. Besides, 1,11,573 metric tonnes of wheat has been lifted.