Centre eases wheat procurement rules for Haryana

NEW DELHI: The Centre has relaxed guidelines for wheat procurement from Haryana on a request from the state government, after unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March damaged crop and hurt grain quality. However, farmers may not get the full minimum support prices of Rs 1,450 per quintal, because there is going to be a deduction based on deficiency in quality.

The relaxation, with immediate effect, is aimed at reducing the hardship of farmers and avoiding distress sale of wheat, the food ministry said in a news release on Tuesday.

Under the eased guidelines, the limit of shrivelled and broken grains in wheat for procurement has been increased to 9% from the earlier 6%. But for every two-percentage-point drop in quality, Rs 14.50 per quintal will be reduced.

This means, said Tejinder Narang, a grain analyst in New Delhi, that if the wheat has shrivelled and broken grains of 9%, or three percentage points more than the earlier limit, Rs 21.75 per quintal will be deducted from the Rs 1,450 support price.

There will be no price cut if up to 10% of the wheat contains grains that have lost lustre, the government said. Beyond that, there will be cut starting at Rs 3.63 per quintal for wheat containing up to 50% of such grains.

"If the lustre loss is 10-20%, then government will deduct Rs 3.63 per quintal and if it is 50%, then the deduction will be Rs 14.52 per quintal," said Narang.

A farmer will not easily comprehend the guidelines, so they provide substantial scope for procurement agencies to be less than fair, both to the seller and the government, he said.

The loss of sheen is due to the loss of the outer cuticle of the grain, and it reduces the shelf life, said a senior official at Food Corporation of India, the main government procurement agency. "Under normal circumstances, this grain would not have been purchased,” he said.

FCI had collected samples of wheat from wholesale markets and tested them to check the quality, the government news release said. The decision to ease the guidelines was made after examining the test results.