Punjab and Haryana are all set to start the next procurement season for wheat from April 1, with central agency FCI and state agencies expecting to lift a total 125 lakh metric tons of the grain during the rabi marketing season 2008-09.
The minimum support price (MSP) for wheat is now Rs 1,000 per quintal. The Reserve Bank (RBI) has sanctioned the credit limit of Rs 8,013 crore for Punjab this season, while Haryana has sent a proposal for Rs 2,696 crore in order to pay the growers, official said.
Punjab and Haryana are expecting increase in arrival of wheat in mandis this year at 105 lakh MT and 45 lakh MT respectively.
However, FCI last month, had expressed concern over the dwindling arrival of wheat in both states. It is perceived that farmers might sell crop directly to other states after ‘avoiding’ conventional route of bringing their crop in the markets.
The Punjab government has notified 1,600 mandis for the procurement, while Haryana has approved 362 markets sheds in the entire state for lifting wheat, which will commence from April 1, an official of Food and Supplies Department said.
Punjab is expecting to procure 85 lakh MT of wheat during this season, the state has set different targets for various procurement agencies.
According to a senior official of Punjab Food and Supplies Department, Pungrain, Markfed and Punsup would procure 22 per cent each while Punjab Warehousing, Punjab Agro and Food Corporation of India (FCI) would buy 13, 10 and 11 per cent respectively of total expected procurement.
Haryana is also hoping to lift over 40 lakh MT of wheat from the state with procurement agencies such as Hafed, Confed, Haryana Warehousing, Haryana Agro, Food and Supplies and FCI targeting to lift 35, 9, 9, 9, 28 and 10 per cent of total procurement respectively in the season.
In 2007-08, the total procurement of wheat from Punjab and Haryana stood at 67.80 lakh MT and 33.5 lakh MT respectively.
The arrival of wheat in both Punjab and Haryana during the year 2007-08 has gone down by 26.31 lakh tons and 27.54 lakh tons respectively as compared to arrival in 2001-02, it pointed out.
Even as sporadic incidences of aphids attack on wheat crop were observed in some parts of Punjab and Haryana during the last one-and-half month, wheat experts believe that both states would be able to achieve their wheat output target comfortably at 145 lakh MT and 102 lakh MT respectively.
“The prolonged cold conditions during this rabi season would prove conducive to the crop and if there is no hailstorm or heavy rains during next one or two weeks, the yield of wheat would also improve considerably,” they said.
Posted By Staff Reporter: Gurgaon City News
in Gurgaon News
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