Wheat procurement to end today
Amritsar, May 24
With the harvesting season complete and only a day left for the procurement season to end, a total of 7.35 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of wheat crop has arrived in the markets. The wheat procurement season would end on May 25.
District Mandi Board officials stated that less produce was coming to the markets these days as farmers had already completed the harvesting. Only 350 MT of crop arrived in the grain markets of the district on Wednesday.
With harvesting over, only those farmers who had kept the crop at their homes and could not bring it to the grain markets earlier are bringing the produce, said an official, adding that the farmers have only one day left after which the government procurement would end.
Mandi Board officials stated that of the total wheat procurement so far, 6.86 lakh MT has been procured by government agencies while the private buyers have purchased only 49,167 MT of wheat.
Meanwhile, the lifting of the procured grains from the markets is still going on at a slow pace as 44 per cent of the stock is still waiting to be lifted. Mandi Board officials stated that so far, 4.11 lakh MT of procured wheat stock has been lifted from the grain markets.
District officials stated that of the five government procurement agencies, Pungrain has purchased a maximum of 2.03 lakh MT of wheat, followed by Punsup with 1.68 lakh MT, Markfed 1.48 lakh MT and Punjab Warehouse Corporation 1.34 lakh MT. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has also purchased 30,712 MT of wheat.
Chief Agriculture Officer Jatinder Singh Gill said harvesting of wheat was over. Now, farmers were preparing fields for the next crop. The farmers had started growing nurseries of paddy varieties. Paddy transplantation in the district was allowed from June 19.
