Medium-quality wheat to be sold through ration shops

Left with little choice, the government might distribute the mediocre-quality wheat that it had procured from farmers because of damage to crops in the recent rain, through ration shops in the current financial year.

Although this might raise issues related to the quality of the wheat sold, there is nothing much the government can do. This is so because the shelf life of low-grade wheat is short and, hence, the stock should be moved.

"We had mentioned in the order in which the procurement norms were relaxed that the wheat so purchased should be given priority in disposing off," said a senior official.

The Centre this year relaxed the procurement norms for wheat in view of massive damage to standing crops in the unseasonal rain and hail that hit northern parts of the country around March.

In Punjab, the Centre decided to purchase up to 10 per cent broken and shrivelled grains, against the existing norm of six per cent. In many states, wheat with more than 50 per cent lustre lost was accepted. In Haryana, too, the Centre decided to purchase up to 90 per cent lustre lost wheat.

Similar relaxation in procurement norms of wheat was made for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. As a result, the wheat procurement in the current season is almost the same as 2014-15, although six million tonne was lost in the untimely rain.

The Food Corporation of India ended up purchasing 85 per cent of the total wheat, which arrived in the market against 78 per cent last year. The purchases totalled 27.13 million tonne till June 4 this year, higher than the 26.61 million tonne, procured during the corresponding period last year.

Of the 27 million tonne of wheat purchased, 24-25 million tonne is not of superior quality but fit for human consumption, while the rest is of good quality. As on April 1, 2015, the Centre had around 17.2 million tonne of wheat from the old stocks.

The total annual wheat requirement for public distribution system (PDS) is 21-22 million tonne, of which four to five million tonne is offloaded through the ration shops. "This means, much of PDS wheat requirement this year will have to be met from this 24-25 million tonne, which is not of excellent quality," another official remarked.