Weather Woes: Quality standards for wheat procurement likely to be relaxed to help farmers

CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to relax quality standards for wheat procurement to compensate farmers for the damage caused by the inclement weather, said Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Rs 100 per quintal as States have sought bonus for wheat over and above the Rs 1,450 per quintal minimum support price (MSP) to aide the farmers.

"The Food Corporation of India (FCI) needs to relax quality standards for wheat procurement for damage caused by hail and heavy rains," he said while visiting Chandigarh to take stock of damage to crops.

The Haryana government has sought relaxations in quality standards for wheat procurement for public distribution system, according to the minister. The news come at a time when some of the Indian wheat importers are in talks with international traders to procure 70,000-80,000 tonne Australian wheat. India, the world's second-largest wheat grower, is expected to see a drop in ouput to 93-94 million tonne this year compared to 95.9 million tonne in FY14 due to unseasonal rains across the planted regions.

Similarly , FCI sees a fall of 10% in wheat procurement, owing to unseasonal rains in March. This year, the FCI and other government agencies are set to procure 30 million tonne for various government schemes from April 1. Traders feel the government can relax the moisture content from 12% to 15%. Such a procurement will have a shorter shelf life, they said. Fur ther, the traders expect that as on April 1, wheat stock in government granaries will be 18 million tonne.

"Every grain of wheat in Haryana and Punjab will be bought by the centre," Paswan said, while allaying a possibility of distortions by centre over wheat procurement in Haryana. He added the wheat procurement levels in Haryana will remain undeterred.

"The state government feels it has adequate infrastructure to procure paddy through its agencies," he explained. While the Punjab government has sought a relief of Rs 717 crore, Haryana has sought a relief of Rs 1,136 crore from centre to compensate farmers for the crop losses due to the natural calamity .

FCI officials are expected to make field trips to assess the damage caused by hail and rains in the states.

Tejinder Narang, a grain analyst from New Delhi said giving financial relief to farmers by state governments, in the name of inclement weather, is a good vote-bank politics played by the parties for electoral gains. That is what is distorting the Indian quality profile of wheat, he adds.

"India shall have abundant good quality wheat despite some damage to the crops by untimely rains. We are looking ahead of 95 million tonne mountains of Indian wheat production along with the 18 million tonne in stocks," he said.

He added the world is flush with 709 million tonne of wheat crop and wheat may become cheaper when Black Sea (Ukraine and Russia) crop hits in July.