Use of tractor-trolleys boosts wheat lifting at grain markets

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 26

Farmers are a harried lot amid slow lifting of crop at the grain markets in the district. A total of 3,69,527 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat have arrived at the grain markets in the district till Thursday evening and only 66,038 metric tonnes have been lifted so far.

Two days ago, only 11,000 metric tonnes of wheat had been lifted, but with the government allowing the use of tractor-trolleys to lift the grain has surely helped in increasing the pace of wheat lifting.

The government has recently allowed the use of tractor-trolleys. These have also been used in the past, but in absence of any official sanction, the transporters often had to face problems.

District Mandi Officer Kulwant Singh said, “In the last two days, over 50,000 metric tonnes of produce have been lifted. The harvesting season is at peak. On Thursday, around 70,000 metric tonnes of produce arrived at the markets.”

Due to heavy mechanisation, the harvesting season has got confined to a few days, so problems arise at mandis sometimes.

The mandi officer feels that the quantity of arrival will decrease after two days as the season is now at its peak. “As the arrival goes down, the labourers at the markets would be free to load trucks and trolleys. As of now, their priority is to unload and weigh the produce brought by farmers,” he said.

Out of the total arrival of 3,69,527 metric tonnes, 3,54,259 metric tonnes have been procured by various private and government agencies. Mandi officials say allowing tractor trolleys to transport the produce to warehouses has helped as it has increased the pace of crop lifting.