Nurpur: Wheat procurement delayed by 2 weeks, target lowered

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, May 2

Wheat procurement at three centres set up by the State Marketing Board and Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) at Riyali, Milwan and Fatehpur in Kangra district has been delayed by two weeks due to inclement weather.

Officially, the wheat procurement process through the State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation (FCSC) had started on April 10. The unseasonal rain and bad weather conditions disrupted wheat harvesting which delayed the procurement process.

As per information gathered by The Tribune, the state Agriculture Department, through AMPC, has for the first time notified a fourth procurement centre at Nagrota Bagwan in the district where no farmer had turned up till yesterday to sell the crop.

At Riyali centre in Fatehpur subdivision, procurement started on April 20 and 119 farmers had sold 6,549 quintals wheat through SFSC till yesterday. At, Milwan centre in Indora subdivision, procurement started on April 25 and eight farmers had sold 399 quintals of wheat, while at Fatehpur, two farmers had sold 27.5 quintals of wheat till last evening.

The HPFCSC has fixed a target of procuring 1,500 metric tonnes (MT) wheat at Riyali, 1,200 MT at Milwan and 1,000 MT at Fatehpur and 300 MT at Nagrota Bagwan this year.

Wheat is being procured at a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 2,275 per quintal and as per a government notification, procurement will continue till June 10.

Official sources revealed that the HPFCSC had set a target to procure 18,500 MT wheat last year through nine procurement centres across the state. This year, the target has been revised to 10,000 MT in view dry spell in winter and failure to achieve last year’s target. While three procurement centres are operational and have been procuring wheat and paddy at farmers’ doorsteps in Fatehpur and Indora subdivisions for the past several years, most farmers, especially from the ‘mand’ area, prefer to sell their produce to private players in neighbouring Punjab.

Enquiries reveal that farmers, who have to register themselves on the Agriculture Department portal and obtain a token before selling their produce to the government nodal agency, find the process lengthy and complicated.

Some farmers say that they don’t want to waste time and energy in booking slots for selling their produce to the nodal agency.

“We used to sell our produce to private traders in Punjab who pay us above MSP and we also don’t face the issue of grain moisture,” a farmer claimed.

Sawarn Singh, Area Manager, HPFCSC, Dharamsala, said efforts were being made to achieve the procurement target this year.

He said farmers were getting payment within 24 hours of generating the purchase bill. He hoped that the procurement would pick up at all centres in the coming days with improvement in weather.

Meanwhile, Dixit Jaryal, Secretary, APMC Kangra, said best possible facilities were being provided to the sellers at the designated procurement centres in the district.

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