With wheat procurement season set to begin from Monday, the two neighbouring States of Punjab and Haryana are eyeing all-time high crop procurement at 227.30 lakh tonnes, a rise of five per cent over the previous season’s purchase.
Haryana has made arrangement for procuring 87.30 lakh tonnes for the central pool during the coming season. A record 87.16 lakh tonnes was procured during previous season from Haryana.
However, Haryana FCI officials pointed out that wheat arrival in Haryana could be around 78 lakh tonne as state farmers living in villages adjoining Rajasthan would be tempted to sell wheat in Rajasthan.
“We are expecting that Haryana farmers, whose villages share border with Rajasthan will sell about eight-nine lakh tonnes of wheat in that state as the Rajasthan Government is likely to announce Rs 150 per quintal bonus over and above wheat MSP (minimum support price),” the FCI official said.
Punjab, the food basket of the country, has planned to procure record 140 lakh tonne of wheat during Rabi marketing season 2013-14.
Cumulatively, both Punjab and Haryana are eyeing wheat output of 161.59 lakh tonnes and 124 lakh tonnes, respectively for the current Rabi season. Meanwhile, “inadequate” foodgrain storage space will continue to haunt both the agrarian states with about 80 lakh tonnes of freshly harvested crop being expected to be stored in unscientific manner at rice mills, mandi yards or open space, which could be vulnerable to vagaries of inclement weather conditions.
Wheat harvesting in Punjab and Haryana is expected to be delayed by more than 10 days in view of untimely rain lashing the various parts of northern region and unexpectedly low temperature.