Nearly 80% of new wheat arrivals in mandis so far of inferior quality

Untimely rainfall, hailstorm, and strong-velocity winds have impacted wheat crop.

Nearly 80 per cent of the new crop that has arrived at the mandis in North and Central India so far in the last few weeks is low-grade, fetching Rs 1,900-2,050 per quintal — lower than the 2023-24 minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,125 per quintal, trade and market sources said. 

With the weather likely to improve in the days to come, the moisture content in wheat is expected to go down, helping the crop fetch a better price.

In the case of other prime rabi crops, such as chana (gram), traders say there is a loss of 10-15 per cent in yield due to unseasonal rain, pushing prices up from the lows of Rs 4,600-4,700 per quintal to close to the MSP of Rs 5,335 per quintal in the past few days.

“But the upside is limited as the Centre has massive chana reserves of over 1.2-1.3 million tonnes (mt). In addition, it also has the option of opening up imports of matar (pea) available at cheap rates globally,” says Suresh Agarwal, president, All India Dal Mill Associations.

As far as mustard is concerned, there is no big impact whatsoever since the crop was harvested well in time, said president of the Mustard Oil Producers Association of India (MOPA), Babu Lal Data. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department, in its latest weather bulletin, has predicted rainfall and hailstorm activity over Northwest India on Monday.

Navneet Chitlangia, senior vice-president, All India Roller Flour Millers Association, says if any farmer brings wheat not damaged due to unseasonal showers, his produce could fetch anywhere between Rs 2,500 and Rs 2,600 per quintal, particularly in states like Madhya Pradesh (MP).

Until last week, the moisture content in wheat was about 15 per cent. As the week progressed and the weather cleared over parts of Central India, it dropped to 11.5-12 per cent. Punjab has been among the worst affected. It saw rainfall 200 per cent above normal between March 1 and April 2, with lodging reported in about 1.3 million hectares of land, of the total wheat sown area of 3.5 million hectares (nearly 37 per cent). In 100,000 hectares, the crop has been damaged nearly 70-100 per cent with little hope of reclamation.

Lodging is the bending over of the stems near ground level of grain crops, which makes them very difficult to harvest and can dramatically reduce yield.

 “In the balance 1.2 million hectares, the damage is mostly quality parameters in the range of 3-10 per cent. If the skies clear up in the next few days and the sun’s up, the wheat will dry up, further minimising quality decline,” says Gurwinder Singh, director-agriculture, Punjab.

Singh says that more than the loss in production, it is the loss in quality of the standing wheat crop that is a worry, for which the Food Corporation of India must relax its quality parameters.

“Last year, we targeted a production of 16.7-17 mt of wheat, while the actual production was somewhere around 14.8 mt and in 2023-24. Punjab is hopeful of production breaching 14.8 mt, notwithstanding the ill-timed rainfall,” says Singh. “In 2022-23, unusually high temperatures led to the shrivelling of wheat grain. An expected yield of 5-6 quintals from 1 hectare reduced to 3-4 quintals. This year, the loss is more to do with quality as bran gets discoloured,” says Chitlangia. Meanwhile, the Karnal-based Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), in its latest advisory, said farmers must quickly drain their fields to prevent the rotting of plants and refrain from harvesting in haste.

“The productivity of late-sown wheat has gone up due to the downpour,” says IIWBR Director Gyanendra Singh, while sticking to his earlier report that the actual loss is just 3 per cent in timely and early-sown wheat.

“We have mentioned that the actual lodging is in 10-20 per cent areas, while the loss is 3 per cent in timely and early-sown wheat. In late-sown wheat, there could even be gains of 5-7 per cent,” he observes. In the case of MP, the IIWBR report mentions that in areas where the wheat crop was sown on November 1, the per-hectare yield has gone up to 7 quintals per hectare — much higher than last year. “Also, the productivity of kathia wheat (red wheat) in MP this year is higher than the usual chapati wheat (until Saturday). The wheat crop in 10 million hectares has been harvested in MP with no major impact of the unseasonal rainfall witnessed,” adds Singh.