Punjab’s food and civil supplies department and the mandi board on Tuesday began the process to wind up the wheat procurement for this season. As per a notice issued by the board, all mandis in six districts — Ludhiana, Sangrur, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar and Mohali — will not function from Wednesday, while procurement across the state will come to a complete stop on May 10.
So far, 121 lakh tonne wheat has arrived of which 120 lakh tonne has been procured and ₹19,007 crore disbursed among at least 7-lakh farmers. The arrivals are expected to touch 130 lakh tonne against previous season’s (2020) 127 lakh tonne and total disbursals are likely to cross ₹21,000 crore.
The state department has already shut temporary mandis set up to spread out the procurement due to coronavirus.
Mandis in Moga and Tarn Taran will not accept wheat after May 5, Bathinda after May 6 and Barnala, Mansa, Faridkot, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Nawanshahr, and Jalandhar after May 7 and Kapurthala after May 8.
As against the previous season when the wheat procurement lasted for 40-45 days, this time the process took only 35 days as it started after 10 days’ delay on April 10. Due to late harvesting in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Fazilka, Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts, the procurement is expected to continue till May 10.
Also, the procurement this time was different from all the previous seasons as the Centre asked state procurement agencies to pay farmers through the direct benefit transfer scheme.
{{/usCountry}}Also, the procurement this time was different from all the previous seasons as the Centre asked state procurement agencies to pay farmers through the direct benefit transfer scheme.
{{/usCountry}}Though, initially there was opposition from arhtiyas who earlier used to transfer the money into farmers’ accounts, the state government was able to pacify them by offering them a window in the public finance management system (PFMS) to monitor payments made to the farmers.
“It was a tough season, as the new payment system was introduced at the last moment and it took us at least a week to streamline it,” said food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, adding that earlier the agencies would deal with 30,000 active arhtiyas but this time they had to directly deal with 10-lakh farmers.
LIFTING CONTUNUES TO BE SLOW
As against arrival of 121 lakh tonne, only 84 lakh tonne wheat has been lifted so far. The officials of food department attribute the slow lifting of grain to shortage of labour and gunny bags.
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Wheat sheet
Total arrival 121 lakh tonne
Expected arrival 130 lakh tonne
Procured 120 lakh tonne
Lifted 84 lakh tonne