Alleging early onset of heat wave badly affecting the crop yield and causing higher percentage of shrivelled wheat grains, farm leaders in Haryana have demanded compensation for the losses and urged the government to not make any deduction in the name poor quality grains.
As per reports, the Centre has recently formed five teams to assess the impact of higher number of shrivelled grains on request of the Punjab government. Now, Haryana farm unions are also raising similar demands as the Haryana government did not react to their demands of ₹500 bonus on wheat MSP.
As of now, there are no reports that farmers are facing difficulties in selling their produce in the state mandis due to higher percentage of shrivelled grains. But farmers and srhtiyas are of the view that the percentage of shrivelled grain may go beyond the prescribed limits when harvesting of lateral varieties starts later this month.
As per norms, the Centre has allowed 6% shrivelled grain in wheat being purchased but the ground reports from grain markets revealed that the percentage of shrivelled grain is much higher. As of now, procurement agencies have not raised this issue in Haryana.
Farmers said agencies do not procure shrivelled grains as most of these grains is already separated during cleaning.
“This year, the percentage of shrivelled grain is much higher than normal and farmers have to take back one to two quintal shrivelled grain from produce of every acre that they are bringing to the mandis,” said arhtiya Sohan Lal, of Ladwa mandi in Kurukshetra, adding that even the labourers are facing problems to fill 50kg wheat in the bags given by government agencies.
BKU (Tikait) Haryana president Rattan Maan has demanded immediate intervention of the Haryana government over the issue. He said the state’s climate conditions and crop pattern are similar to Punjab, so, the policy to provide relief to farmers should also be the same.
Besides relaxation in procurement norms, the government should also compensate farmers for losses caused by bad weather conditions, he added.
Similarly, Haryana BKU (Charuni) president Gurnam Singh Charuni said, “Procurement norms should be the same for both Punjab and Haryana. Farmers in Haryana should also be allowed to sell their produce without any deductions in the name of lustre loss or shrivelled grains. We have already raised the demand of a bonus of ₹500 per quintal above the MSP of ₹2,015 and will continue our protest in future.”
A senior official from the Haryana food and supplies department said the percentage of shrivelled grains may increase when harvest of lateral varieties starts as experts have claimed that the lateral varieties were badly affected by the early heat wave.
On whether the Haryana government will also raise the issue of shrivelled grain with the Centre, Haryana agriculture department director general, Hardeep Singh, said, “There is no such move in Haryana as till now, we don’t have any such reports from procurement agencies.”
On any instruction to procurement agencies over shrivelled grains, Vijay Singh Dahiya, director general, food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, said wherever such instances are reported, the procurement agencies have been asked to report it to the Food Corporation of India which will examine the quality as per the prescribed norms.
Meanwhile, till Wednesday, a total of 20 lakh tonne wheat had been procured in Haryana, an official spokesperson said, adding that of the total wheat purchased, over six lakh tonne wheat has been lifted from mandis.
