SHRIVELLED GRAIN LEAVES FARMERS WORRIED IN HARYANA TOO
KARNAL: Alleging early onset of heat wave badly affecting the crop yield and causing higher percentage of shrivelled wheat grains, farm leaders in Haryana have demanded compensation for the losses and urged the government to not make any deduction in the name poor quality grains.
As per reports, the Centre has recently formed five teams to assess the impact of higher number of shrivelled grains on request of the Punjab government. Now, Haryana farm unions are also raising similar demands as the Haryana government did not react to their demands of ₹500 bonus on the wheat MSP.
As of now, there are no reports that farmers are facing difficulties in selling their produce in the state mandis due to higher percentage of shrivelled grains. But farmers and arhtiyas are of the view that the percentage of shrivelled grain may go beyond the prescribed limits when harvesting of lateral varieties starts later this month.
“This year, the percentage of shrivelled grain is much higher than normal and farmers have to take back one to two quintal shrivelled grain from produce of every acre that they are bringing to the mandis,” said Sohan Lal, an arhtiya (commission agent) at the Ladwa mandi in Kurukshetra.
‘Govt should intervene’
BKU (Tikait) Haryana president Rattan Maan has demanded immediate intervention of the Haryana government over the issue. He said the state’s climate conditions and crop pattern are similar to Punjab, so the policy to provide relief to farmers should also be the same. The government should also compensate farmers for losses due to extreme weather, he said.
On whether the Haryana government will also raise the issue of shrivelled grain with the Centre, agriculture department director general Hardeep Singh, said: “There is no such move in Haryana as of now. We don’t have any such reports from procurement agencies.”
Till Wednesday, 20 lakh tonne wheat had been procured and six lakh tonne had been lifted from mandis in Haryana, an official spokesperson said.