Wheat buying: Weather is again a wet blanket

While the government has gone an extra mile to ensure that all goes well during the poll season,weather is still the worrying point. “This wheat season will see the most modern procurement system. Right from mechanising handling operations in mandis,e-tendering labour and transport contracts and computerising arrival patterns to having a new warehousing policy and a contingency plan to take care of storage woes,we have tried to do everything to streamline the procurement system. But weather is the cardinal factor,” says Punjab Food and Supply Minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon. However,Punjab Agriculture Director BS Sidhu says moisture will not remain a cause of worry by the time harvesting starts in full swing in the coming five to six days.

So far,only the early-sown crop was bring harvested,he adds. Moreover,moisture in wheat and paddy do not create the same complications since the latter ripens in lower temperatures,and rains during harvesting can damage the grains. “Harvesting of wheat crop begins towards the start of summer and rains at the time of harvest do not have considerable impact on the crop,” he adds. Notably,inclement weather had also caused procurement problems during the last paddy season.

Complaining of harassment at the hands of government agencies,many farmers had to wait for days at the mandis before their wet heaps of paddy were dry enough to be procured.

The weather played spoilsport again just when paddy in many parts of the state was due for harvesting; hailstorms and strong winds flattened the standing crop. The worst-hit were late-sown finer varieties such as basmati,which suffered maximum damage. The procured paddy lying in mandis was also damaged by unexpected heavy showers. The agitated farmers had forced the government agencies to relax specifications for procurement and the crisis ended only after the Punjab and Haryana got the Centre to allow relaxation in permissible limits of discolouration and damaged grains following protests by rice millers.

This year’s wheat season too started with field reports of relatively warm and dry winter spell,reducing tillering (number of spikes per plant). There were reports of some areas witnessing early maturity and yellow rust. Temperatures in December were over two degrees above normal,while January was warmer by four to five degrees. Amid fears that such a variation will reflect on the overall productivity and per acre yield of wheat this year,weather wreaked havoc again and rains lashed the region just when the crop was due for harvesting.