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Some bumper news from the granary of India
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 27
After two years, the Food Corporation of India has reason to cheer: A bumper wheat crop in the granary of India — Punjab and Haryana.

With 53 lakh tonnes of buffer stock of wheat in hand, the FCI will enter the market to procure 135 lakh tonnes of wheat during the harvesting season that begins in four weeks. The FCI has fixed a target of procuring 85 lakh tonnes from Punjab, 40 lakh tonnes from Haryana and the remaining from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

A few months ago, the union government had increased the minimum support price of wheat to Rs 1,000 per quintal. About Rs 100 per quintal as bonus is likely to be given over and above the MSP. Though the procurement of wheat will begin on April 1, it can be advanced in case the governments of Punjab and Haryana are interested.

“If the crop is better, as reports indicate, the procurement of wheat by the FCI and government agencies authorised by it can even be 150 lakh tonnes,” said Alok Sinha, chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the FCI. He held a meeting here with Sarvjeet Singh, general manager of FCI (Punjab region) and Arun Gupta, general manager of FCI (Haryana region).

With procurement of 150 lakh tonnes, the total buffer stock with the FCI will be around 200 lakh tonnes which is enough to meet the country’s requirement round the year. Every month, about 13 lakh tonnes of wheat is supplied by the FCI to various parts of the country under the PDS. Of the buffer stock of wheat in hand, 32 lakh tonnes is lying in Punjab. And, for stacking fresh wheat, the FCI has enough space in its godowns.

As far as rice is concerned, Punjab has already supplied about 25 lakh tonnes of rice in the national pool. About 25 lakh tonnes of rice is stacked in various godowns in the state and 28 lakh tonnes is under preparation in various rice shellers. There are no complaints from any part of the country regarding the quality of Punjab rice. In fact, it is being readily accepted by various states.

The situation has eased compared to the past two years when buffer wheat and rice stocks had dipped to only a few lakh tonnes. Import of 50 lakh tonnes of wheat during the past two years has enabled the union government to rebuild the wheat stock.

During the coming procurement season, there is a possibility of minimal purchase of wheat by private companies because of the changed circumstances and building up of stock with the FCI.

An interesting fact that has come to light is that arrival of wheat in Punjab and Haryana has come down during the past few years. Compared to 2001-02, there was a shortfall of 27.54 lakh tonnes of arrival of wheat in various markets of Haryana in 2007-08 and in Punjab the arrival was less by 26.31 lakh tonnes in 2007-08 compared to 2001-02.

FCI officials feel that a lot of wheat stock in Punjab and Haryana is not brought to grain markets and is sold to private parties through illegal channels. Because of this practice, Punjab suffered a loss of Rs 227 crore during the last procurement season and Haryana of Rs 245 crore.

Sell wheat directly to FCI

As a pilot project, the FCI has set up two markets at Kaithal and Moga, enabling farmers to directly sell wheat to it or other procurement agencies instead of through arhtiyas (commission agents). While the Haryana government, in collaboration with the FCI, has notified Kaithal as market where farmers can directly sell to the FCI and other agencies, the Punjab government has assured the FCI to complete a similar process in Moga by April 1.

The FCI has set up cellos at Kaithal and Moga of 2 lakh tonne capacity each to allow farmers direct sale of wheat. With this, farmers will get at least Rs 25 per quintal more because they will have not to pay commission to arhtiyas. Though the Punjab government was told to declare direct markets by the FCI several years ago, it was avoiding the process as it did not want to annoy the arhtiyas.