Centre eases wheat purchase norms for Punjab, Haryana

Powerful storms and hail had ripped through India’s main wheat-producing states in March, soiling grains and damaging its quality.

In a relief to farmers, the Union government has relaxed quality standards of wheat eligible for procurement from Punjab and Haryana following crop-damaging torrential rains last month, according to separate notifications issued by the Union food ministry.

Bountiful harvests are crucial this year, as the country is running low on cereal stocks after a heatwave crimped wheat output by nearly 2 to 107 million tonne in 2022, stoking shortages and food inflation. (HT)

The lower quality wheat however will be bought by the government with cuts in the federally fixed minimum support price (MSP), which is ₹ 2125 per quintal (100 kg) of wheat. Powerful storms and hail had ripped through India’s main wheat-producing states in March, such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, soiling grains and damaging its quality.

Bountiful harvests are crucial this year, as the country is running low on cereal stocks after a heatwave crimped wheat output by nearly 2 to 107 million tonne in 2022, stoking shortages and food inflation.

Procurement refers to the Centre’s purchases of cereals at MSP, which are then redistributed to nearly 800 million beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act 2013. Despite the impact of extreme weather, India has officially forecast a record output of 112 million tonne. Wheat is sown in November and harvested in March-end and April.

The food ministry, in separate notifications to Punjab and Haryana, granted relaxations for grains that either have broken, shrivelled or suffered loss of its natural lustre, or gloss, due to the impact of extreme weather. Similar concessions have already been announced for Madhya Pradesh.

The easing of specifications for the staple will allow farmers to sell sub-par wheat to Food Corporation of India, the Centre’s main grain-handling agency. FCI normally buys wheat and rice that fits its criteria of “fair and average quality” at MSP.

In Punjab, the government will buy wheat with lustre loss of 10% at the declared MSP of ₹ 2125 a quintal. Grains with damage to natural its shine above 10% and up to 80% will however be procured at a per-quintal rate that will be ₹5.31 lower than MSP per quintal.

Stocks with shrivelled or broken grains of between 6% and 8% will also be subjected to a value cut of ₹5.31 a quintal. For broken grains in the 9-10% range, the cut will be ₹10.62 a quintal and for broken grains of between 11-12%, the deductions have been set at ₹15.93. If grains are shrivelled between 16% and 18%, the maximum permissible limit, a value cut of ₹31.87 a quintal will apply.

The same relaxations that apply for Punjab are also being offered to Haryana, according to a notification to additional chief secretary of state Monday, which HT has seen.

“The limit of shrivelled and broken grain is being relaxed up to 18% against the existing limit of 6% under uniform specifications with one-fourth of one full value cut for every additional relaxation of 2%,” the food ministry’s notification on Tuesday said.