Under pressure from farmers hit by the unseasonal rain and hailstorm, parties including BJP's ally in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal has reportedly demanded further relaxation in the quality of wheat so that almost all the produce is procured by FCI and the state agencies. This will provide farmers almost the assured support price.
As per estimates, Punjab would contribute 40% of the total 300 lakh tonnes wheat to be procured this year. Till April 23, 86.23 lakh tonnes of wheat has been procured as compared to 100.8 lakh tonnes during the same period last year. "The slow pace in procurement has been due to late arrival of wheat in mandis on account of intermittent rain," food minister Ram Vilas Paswan told Lok Sabha in a written reply.
Paswan also told the Lower House that the procurement this year may fall short.Already the food ministry has liberalized the procurement norms so far as lustre loss and broken and shrivelled grain are concerned. "Since relaxation with regard to these two parameters does not deteriorate the nutritional value of grains for human consumption, we have met most of the demands forwarded by different state governments. But there is no procurement of grains with more moisture content than the permitted limit. The procurement is being done as per the food safety standard law," a food ministry source said.
He added that the allowed moisture content is 12%-14%. Earlier this month Congress president Sonia Gandhi had written to food minister Ram Vilas Paswan seeking relaxation on moisture content issue. But Paswan had said that permitting more moisture content beyond this level would mean the grain would be unfit for human consumption.
After assessing the quality of wheat samples, Centre has relaxed the quality specification of wheat procurement in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh.
Ministry sources said they have not received any fresh formal request from Punjab for relaxing norms. "But samples have been picked up from different districts to find out how big is the problem of broken and shrivelled grain. Only after it's found that there is a bigger problem, can norms be relaxed," said a ministry official.
In fact, this is for the first time when government has gone for maximum relaxation of norms for lustre loss and broken grains. Last week the ministry further relaxed the lustre loss limit for wheat in six districts in Haryana between 90% and 95%. For example, in Kaithal district the relaxed lustre loss is 95%.
Already the ministry has relaxed lustre loss norm up to 50% for this year from 10%, which was the norm earlier. Farmers would lose only Rs 3.63 per quintal in MSP for such grains.
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