Centre won’t procure wheat with moisture beyond 14%

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 4

If government specifications on wheat procurement for the current rabi season are anything to go by, farmers are in for some serious trouble.

A recent government circular issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution says no wheat crop with moisture in excess of 12 to 14 per cent should be procured by central agencies. That would be a tough target for farmers to meet in this season of untimely rains.

The circular says: “Moisture in excess of 12 per cent and up to 14 per cent will be discounted at full value. Stocks containing moisture in excess of 14 per cent are to be rejected.”

Issued by the Consumer Affairs Minister headed by Ram Vilas Paswan, the circular lists “Uniform Procurement Specifications for Wheat of All Varieties for Rabi Marketing Season 2015-2016” and further says that slightly damaged grains beyond 4 per cent of damage and shriveled and broken grains beyond a 6 per cent proportion must also be rejected by the procurement agencies.

“The farmers may be advised to offer only dry and clean stocks for procurement,” says the communication forwarded recently to the Chairman and MD of the Food Corporation of India and other hands dealing with the procurement of wheat and barley.

That being the case, the Opposition Congress today launched a scathing attack on the BJP government with party’s media unit head Randeep Surjewala asking: “In this season of untimely and heavy showers which wheat crop would have moisture less than 14 per cent? While issuing this unilateral diktat, the Modi government lost sight of the fact that pursuant to the current rains, almost the entire crops, including the undamaged one, will have moisture of 20 pc to 30 pc on the average. This order of the government will ensure that no procurement of wheat and other rabi crops takes place by the procurement agencies leaving the farmers at the mercy of market forces once again. The order reaffirms the fact that this is an anti-farmer government.”

The recent rains, hailstorm and storms have damaged around 170 lakh hectares of rabi crops in 14 states causing losses of over Rs 40,000 crore.

The Congress vowed to launch an offensive against the government to demand relaxations in the procurement specifications especially when Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya has indicated the inability of the Finance Ministry to adequately compensate the farmers for damaged crops is a severe body blow to the farming community reeling under severe distress. 

“Coming as it does on the heels of the draconian Land Acquisition Ordinance yesterday, this indication of the Niti Ayog top functionary reaffirms the inherently ingrained anti-farmer prejudice of the Modi government,” Surjewala said.

He also referred to the statement of Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh absolving the Centre of its responsibility to pay compensation to farmers by asking states to first pay compensation from the State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) and then use “Contingency Funds” at the state level.