Punjab: Government agencies still offering higher rates for wheat, doing bulk buying

CHANDIGARH: Strongly defending the new agriculture marketing laws passed by the parliament in September 2020, the Union government had stated that these legislations would usher more private players into the purchase of crops, resulting in higher returns and better price discovery, and farmers could sell their produce directly from their fields or outside the mandis (farm produce markets).
However, data gathered from the mandis in north India comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh reveal that government agencies have either done the bulk of wheat buying, the biggest rabi (winter-sown) crop, or have offered higher rates than the private companies or traders. Inquiries from farmers and mandis in the region revealed that wheat has been largely purchased at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,975 per quintal or below, contrary to the expectations of the central government.
Gurtej Singh Grewal, a farmer from Pilibhit district of UP, stated he sold his wheat at around Rs 1,900 per quintal. “There was fear that the rates may go down further so I sold my produce to avoid losses. I had grown HD 2967 variety of wheat. Most of the purchase was done by local flour mills and traders in my area,” said Grewal, whose farm is near Majhola in Pilibhit.
Rates of wheat offered by private players in the mandis of Uttarakhand and UP are in the range of Rs 1,750-1,800 per quintal. However, the state agencies are procuring the food grain at the MSP. Gurpreet Singh, a farmer from Hazratpur in Rampur district of UP, said rates had improved slightly from Rs 1,700 per quintal in the first fortnight of April to Rs 1,800 per quintal in the first week of May.
Even the arrival and procurement figures of Punjab and Haryana indicate that bulk of the purchase has been done by the government agencies in both states. As per the data available on the website of the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board (Punjab Mandi Board), till Monday, a total of nearly 128.85 lakh metric tonnes of wheat arrivals were reported in the mandis of Punjab of which 128.36 LMT of the grains have been procured by the government agencies while the share of private agencies is mere 6,382 metric tonnes.
Haryana, which had suspended the procurement of wheat on May 2 for a week due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, had recorded about 83.49 LMT arrivals of wheat in the mandis till then. As per the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB) e-kharid portal, the state agencies have procured around 80.88 LMT of the total arrivals of wheat.
With Haryana and Punjab disallowing sale of wheat from other states in their mandis this season, farmers of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh felt the pinch. Sensing the situation, the Himachal Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board (HPSAMB) requested the central government agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure the wheat from the state.
The HPSAMB managing director Captain Naresh Thakur said, “Wheat procurement was done by the state agencies earlier too but it was on a small scale. We have established eight wheat procurement centres in the state for the procurement of wheat this time. The FCI is procuring the food grain at the MSP. Before the arrival of FCI, we had reports of wheat being purchased at around Rs 1,600-1,700 per quintal in the open market.”