Centre relaxes wheat procurement norms in Punjab, Chandigarh

To provide relief to farmers affected by the recent unseasonal heavy rains and hailstorm, the Centre today relaxed quality norms for procurement of wheat in Punjab as well as Chandigarh.
A few days ago, government had eased wheat procurement norms in Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Wheat procurement is underway. Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies procure wheat at the support price.
"In order to reduce the hardship of farmers and to avoid distress sale of wheat, it has been decided to procure wheat in Punjab with the following relaxation," the Food Ministry said in a letter to the Punjab government.

The ministry has reduced the value that is cut for shrivelled and broken grains by up to 10 per cent instead of 6 per cent and procurement of lustre lost wheat containing 10 per cent affected kernels without value cut.
It has also allowed the FCI to purchase lustre lost grain containing more than 10 per cent and up to 50 per cent kernels at a value cut of Rs 3.63 per quintal.

Wheat so procured should be stacked and accounted for separately and will be consumed in the state to the extent of requirement under the PDS and other welfare scheme, it added.

The ministry also said: "Relaxed norms for wheat procurement allowed in Punjab are extended to Chandigarh also with the same terms and conditions."
FCI has been asked to procure luster lost grains up to 90 per cent with the value cut of Rs 3.63 per quintal in districts of Mewat, Sonepat, Jind, Palwal and Faridabad.
Unseasonal rains and hailstorms, witnessed from February -end, have damaged rabi (winter-sown) crops in about 113 lakh hectares in about 14 states.
Total cultivable area in rabi season stands at 600 lakh hectares and wheat is a major rabi crop.
The Centre has fixed the wheat procurement target at 30.05 million tonnes in 2015-16 marketing year (April- March) as against 28 million tonnes bought by the FCI last year.

Wheat production is likely to fall by 4-5 per cent from the initial estimates of 95.76 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) due to unseasonal rains.