Harvesting picks up pace, daily arrival touches 635 MT in Amritsar district

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Amritsar, April 11

With a total of 635 Metric Tonne wheat arriving in the grain markets in the district on Monday, around 801 MT of the produce has reached the markets so far.

Of the total arrival, 542 MT has been purchased by different government agencies, while 106 MT has been purchased by private players so far.

Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who was at district’s biggest grain market at Bhagtanwala on Monday to take stock of the arrangements, said: “The harvesting in Majha region is a little late, but overall 5.5 lakh MT of wheat has arrived in markets in the state.” He said 4.3 lakh MT of it has already been procured.

He said markets in the state saw an arrival of 2.6 lakh MT on Monday. In most of the cases, the purchase was made on the day of the arrival and farmers were free to go home by the evening, he claimed.

Dhaliwal said even as the arrival of the produce in the district markets is slow, all arrangements pertaining to ‘bardana’, labour and transportation are in place.

He claimed that procured wheat was being lifted from the markets within 72 hours of the purchase. He said directors of all procurement agencies have been asked to visit the grain markets and oversee the process.

The district agriculture officials said harvesting would reach at its peak after Baisakhi. They said once farmers start harvesting the crop, the entire fields would be cleared within 10 to 15 days.

MLA Inderbir Singh Nijjer, Deputy Commissioner Harpreet Singh Sudan, District Food and Civil Supplies Controller Sukhwinder Singh and other officials of the administration were also present.