Punjab,Haryana to give 10 lakh MT less wheat to Central pool

The daily wheat arrivals to mandis of the two states is down to a trickle with those on Tuesday plummeting below 25,000 metric tonnes,less than a third of the figure last year.

The total arrival in Punjab barely reached the 100 MT mark on Tuesday against 104 lakh MT on the same day last year.

The state expects the total procurement to reach 104 lakh MT against the target of 115 lakh MT set before the start of the procurement season. “Wheat is still coming to mandis of Ferozepur,Jalandhar and Patiala. However,we may not reach the 105 lakh MT mark by the time procurement ends on May 31,” Punjab Food and Civil Supply Director D S Grewal said. The total procurement of wheat by Punjab last year was 107.25 lakh MT.

Haryana,which had contributed 69.24 lakh MT of wheat to the central pool last year,too has downsized this year’s target from 70 lakh MT to 63 lakh MT. “The total arrival till Tuesday was 62 lakh MT. We expect it to reach 63 lakh MT by the time wheat procurement comes to an end,” an official of the Haryana Food and Civil Supply Department said.

The dip in procurement is because of less yield in the southwestern parts of both states that have seen unusually hot conditions in the second half of March.

The impact of the heat was worsened by the unavailability of canal water and inadequate power supply to the farm sector during the crucial grain-filling stage.

“The total area under wheat in Haryana had gone up this year by 14,000 hectares to 24.76 lakh hectares. However,the wheat yield has gone down marginally in the cotton belt and southwestern parts of Haryana because of inadequate irrigation facilities. When temperatures shot up in March,the crop could not be irrigated timely,” said Punjab Food and civil Supply Additional Director,Agriculture,B S Duggal.

On the basis of the results of one-third crop cutting experiments,Haryana has pegged this year’s wheat production to 110 lakh MT against a target of 114 lakh MT. Punjab is waiting for the results of the entire crop cutting operations to reach a conclusive production figure.

“We can be sure of the total wheat production after the entire crop-cutting results are in. We are hoping it will touch 150 lakh MT,which will be about five per cent down from last year’s production of 157 lakh MT last,” Punjab Financial Commissioner Development N S Kang said.