Rain may delay wheat harvesting in Punjab till Baisakhi

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, March 31

The ongoing spell of rain is expected to delay the wheat harvest till Baisakhi despite the fact that the wheat procurement season will begin from Saturday.

Officials in the state government have said as more rain has expected in the coming days, farmers will not harvest wheat crop, delaying its arrival in the market and procurement. It is only after the rain stops and the sun shines for three or four days that the crop will be dry and become ready for harvesting. Today, 13 districts witnessed rain with heavy rainfall being recorded in Patiala, Nawanshahr, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Barnala.

Fields inundated in Muktsar

• Rain, accompanied by strong winds, lashed Muktsar district on Friday
• “Nearly 40 per cent crop had already been damaged earlier, and now fresh rain has totally destroyed the crop. We worked hard for the past few days to clear the fields, but these are again inundated. The entire crop is flattened,” said farmers.

Food and Supply Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said the harvest was expected to be delayed by a week to 10 days. He admitted that the yield would also be affected, especially in the Malwa region, because of the untimely rain.

This year, the government had set a target to procure 132 lakh metric tonnes of wheat. However, the rain and high-velocity winds that swept the state last week has led to crop damage. It is now estimated that the yield could come down by around 8 per cent as nearly 15 per cent of wheat crop has been damaged.

Principal Secretary Food and Supplies Gurkirat Kirpal Singh said the government had made all arrangements to procure wheat in 1,800 mandis, besides notifying 230 temporary market yards. “We have sufficient bales to pack and store the grain. Even the covered store for wheat has been arranged with the Food Corporation of India stepping up the transportation of foodgrain stored in godowns here to recipient states. A plan is in place to move 20 lakh metric tonnes of grain out in April and another 10 lmt in May,” he said.

This time the government had brought in two new concepts to stop the practice of wheat from outside being brought here to sell it at a higher MSP. These are a vehicle tracking system through GPS and an online gate pass system.

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