‘30-70% crop loss:’ Randhawa urges Centre to step in amid wheat damage

Chandigarh: Highlighting extensive damage to standing wheat at a critical pre-harvest stage due to unseasonal rain, hailstorms and strong winds, Congress MP from Gurdaspur Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Sunday wrote to Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, seeking urgent Central intervention.In his letter, Randhawa said a series of active western disturbances since March 30-31, accompanied by cyclonic circulation, battered large parts of Punjab, particularly in the Malwa belt. Field reports, he noted, indicate crop losses ranging from 30% to 70% in the worst-hit areas. He also pointed to the India Meteorological Department's orange alert for April 6 and 7, warning that the threat of further damage still looms over the state. Pointing out that Punjab had sown wheat over more than 34 lakh hectares, and the crop was nearing harvest readiness when the adverse weather struck, just as procurement began on April 1. He said continuous rainfall delayed harvesting by nearly two weeks in several districts, pushing farmers beyond the ideal harvest window and exposing the crop to prolonged moisture. This, he warned, could trigger fungal infections and increase the risk of pre-harvest sprouting, leading to further deterioration in grain quality and lower market prices. Randhawa also flagged losses to wheat that was already harvested and was lying in fields or stored in the open in mandis. Rain-soaked grain, he said, may fail to meet the Food Corporation of India's moisture specifications of 12% to 14%, raising the possibility of rejection at procurement centres and inflicting a second round of losses on farmers already hit in the fields.‘No protection under Fasal Bima Yojna' A key concern Randhawa raised in the letter was that Punjab farmers have no protection under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, as the state had not implemented the crop insurance scheme since its launch in Kharif 2016.Randhawa said this left farmers outside the national crop insurance framework at a time when hailstorm and unseasonal rainfall losses would otherwise have been covered under PMFBY's localised risk provisions. He asked the Centre whether any independent assessment of crop losses had been initiated by the Union govt and sought clarity on what relief mechanism is available to Punjab farmers in the absence of PMFBY coverage. He also wrote in the letter, "Since Punjab does not participate in PMFBY, is it the position of the Govt of India that relief must be provided solely by the State Govt of Punjab from its own budgetary resources or from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)? Or does the ministry propose to recommend to the ministry of home affairs that additional National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) assistance be released to Punjab specifically on account of this crop loss event, and on what timeline?" Randhawa also wrote, "Are the SDRF input subsidy norms adequate? The SDRF's prescribed per-hectare input subsidy rates for crop damage were fixed some years ago and bear no meaningful relationship to current input costs seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, and labour which have risen substantially. I request the ministry to urgently recommend to the ministry of home affairs a revision of these norms upward, commensurate with current ground realities, so that whatever relief is paid to Punjab farmers is not derisory." He further wrote, "Farm unions across Punjab have demanded that the Central Govt relax the FCI's wheat moisture specification, given the extraordinary weather circumstances that have prevented timely harvesting. I urge the ministry to take up this matter with the FCI and the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution on an emergency basis, so that farmers are not penalised twice — first by the hailstorm, and then by rejection at the mandi." Randhawa's letter further read, "Will the Ministry now make a formal offer to Punjab to join PMFBY? The present calamity makes the cost of Punjab's prolonged absence from PMFBY painfully visible. Had the state been enrolled, hailstorm and unseasonal rainfall losses would have been compensable under the scheme's localised risk provisions without the farmer having to wait upon bureaucratic girdawari and governmental discretion. I urge the Ministry to use this moment to make a formal, time-bound offer to the Govt of Punjab to join PMFBY from Rabi 2026-27, with full Central technical and financial support." Ends MSID:: 130039555 413 |