Rise in production enthuses wheat growers in state

Farmers are elated over initial indications of a good wheat harvest this year. The yield is likely to be up by about 4 quintal per acre.

Commission agents and farmers told The Tribune that the wheat yield this year was likely to be 25-26 quintal per acre, compared to 21-22 quintal per acre last year. The wheat procurement season this year would be the shortest-ever with the peak crop arrivals expected to last only for the next 10 days.

The Secretary (Food and Supplies) will hold a meeting of all deputy commissioners on Wednesday to guide them on tackling the wheat inflow.

At the Khanna grain market, Arhtiyas Association president Harbans Singh Rosha said although the season had just begun, the crop yield was showing promise of a bumper harvest. Mahinder Krishan Chand Arora, a commission agent at the Rajpura market, said the yield so far appeared to be up 3-4 quintal per acre. He said private players were purchasing wheat at Rs 5 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,425 per quintal.

Officials in the Agriculture Department said the crop-cutting experiments were still underway and the exact wheat yield would be known only after the results were fully analysed.

“Only 40 per cent of the crop harvesting experiments have been completed so far. We will come to know the exact increase in yield only after these experiments are concluded,” said an official.

Meanwhile, around 4.59 lakh metric tonne (LMT) wheat has arrived in mandis since the beginning of the procurement season this year. Around 2.32 LMT out that arrived on Tuesday alone.

In the coming 8-10 days, the arrivals were likely to go up to 8-10 LMT per day, sources said.

The Centre has reduced the procurement season by 15 days this year. Generally, the wheat procurement season is from April 1 to May 31, but this year, it will end on May 15.