NEW DELHI: In the light of slow supply of wheat and procurement in Madhya Pradesh, the government may revise its wheat procurement target to 280 lakh tonnes (LT), down from the proposed target of 341 LT.
Local traders in Madhya Pradesh have created confusion among farmers, discouraging them from selling their wheat at Food Corporation of India (FCI) procurement centres due to multiple slabs of crop damage caused by unseasonal rains in March.
This has resulted in reduced wheat availability at procurement centres and may affect overall procurement in near future. However, till now the overall procurement has increased over 195 LT in comparison to last week procurement.
Punjab remained a major contributor to wheat procurement, followed by Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Last year, FCI missed its procurement target by 60 per cent, making this year’s procurement critical for the country’s food security. FCI officials have expressed concern over traders in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan suppressing wheat flow, and the matter has been forwarded to a group of ministers for immediate decision-making.
To prevent farmers from distress selling their damaged crops due to weather-related issues, the Union government had relaxed quality norms for wheat procurement in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. However, the multiple slabs of relaxed norms have created confusion among farmers, leading to traders taking advantage and diverting wheat to the market instead of selling it to FCI.
FCI officials have requested the consolidation of the slabs to remove confusion and streamline procurement. Farmers in Madhya Pradesh are also facing payment issues at procurement centres, which take around a week to pay them. This has led to delays and reluctance among farmers to sell their wheat.
Traders have also pointed out that big buyers in the private sector are aggressively buying wheat from Madhya Pradesh, driving up wholesale prices in local markets.
“Due to multiple slabs, local traders beguiled the farmers to sell their produce to market,” says the official. “A note has been sent to the Group of Ministers to take a call on it to make one slab to remove confusion,” he adds.
MP-based traders pointed out other reasons. According to them, the market price of wheat is hovering a bit above the minimum support price (MSP) and payment issues at government procurement centres. “Today, we bought wheat ranging from Rs 2082 to Rs 2170 and paid the farmers on the spot,” said Shital Osawal, a trader based in Itarsi. Farmers are also facing payment issues as the procurement centres, which takes around a week to pay farmers “Big buyers, like Reliance, Brittania, Cargill and ITC, aggressively buying wheat from MP is a major cause of the increase in wholesale price in mandis,” Shital added.
However, an MP-based government official said farmers are busy in Green Gram sowing, and festivals like Akshay Tritya and Eid have slowed the wheat flow. “Due to multiple slabs, local traders beguiled the farmers to sell their produce to market,” says the official. “A note has been sent to the Group of Ministers to take a call on it to make one slab to remove confusion,” he adds.
| Uptake during April 20-26 (in lakh tonne) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| State | Estimated procurement target | Procurement 2023-24 (April 20) | Procurement 2022-23 (April 26) |
| Punjab | 132 | 46.7 | 89.87 |
| Haryana | 75 | 42.1 | 54.26 |
| MP | 80 | 34 | 34 |