Centre relaxes quality norms for wheat procurement in Haryana

NEW DELHI: Providing relief to farmers affected by unseasonal rains and hailstorms, the Centre today relaxed the quality norms for procurement of wheat in Haryana.

It has already eased wheat procurement norms for Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and is also ready to consider relaxation of these norms for other states.

Wheat procurement is underway. Food Corporation of India ( FCI) and state agencies procure wheat at the support price.

"Untimely rains and hailstorms in March 2015 have widely damaged wheat crop in Haryana also... To reduce the hardship of farmers and to avoid distress sale of wheat, the central government has decided to relax quality norms for procurement of wheat in the state with immediate effect," the Food Ministry said in an release.

An order in this regard has been issued after testing the grain samples, it added.

As per the revised norms, FCI will procure "shrivelled and broken grains" up to 9 per cent from farmers as against the existing limit of 6 per cent.

It will procure 'lustre lost grains' up to 10 per cent affected kernels without value cut. However, in case of 'lustre lost grain' over 10 per cent, FCI will purchase up to 50 per cent of the affected kernel with value cut.

Unseasonal rains and hailstorms, witnessed from February -end, have damaged rabi (winter-sown) crops in about 113 lakh hectares in about 14 states.

Total cultivable area in rabi season stands at 600 lakh hectares and wheat is a major rabi crop.

The Centre has fixed the wheat procurement target at 30.05 million tonnes in 2015-16 marketing year (April- March) as against 28 million tonnes bought by the FCI last year.

Wheat production is likely to fall by 4-5 per cent from the initial estimates of 95.76 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) due to unseasonal rains.