Wheat arrival surges in Haryana mandis

KARNAL: Amid complaints of poor yield and harvest reaching its peak, arrival of fresh wheat in mandis of Haryana has gained pace.

However, arhtiyas and farmers are of the view that the duration of wheat harvest season is likely to remain short this year as early onset of heat wave caused the wheat to ripen early. Also, arrival in most mandis remained lower than the figures of last year. As per figures, total 5.02 lakh MT wheat has arrived in grain markets of Karnal district so far against the 5.56 lakh MT of last year. In Kaithal, total 39.48 lakh MT wheat has arrived in mandis till April 15 against 40.19 lakh MT of last year, while 2.69 lakh MT wheat has arrived in mandis of Kurukshetra district till date, against 3.51 lakh MT of last year.

Tardy lifting delays payments

However, lifting of procured wheat remains slow leading to a glut-like situation in mandis and affecting procurement operation. Figures collected from the districts revealed that nearly 50% of the procured wheat is still lying in mandis.

Of 4.93 lakh MT wheat procured in Karnal district, 2.85 lakh MT (52%) is still lying in mandis. In Kaithal, 1.87 lakh MT wheat has been lifted against total 3.94 lakh MT procured, and in Kurukshetra, only 1.48 lakh MT wheat has been lifted of total 2.69 lakh wheat procured in mandis of the district. In Yamunanagar, of total 1 lakh MT arrived in the mandis in district, around 60,000 MT wheat has been lifted. Arhtiyas said delay in lifting also resulted in delay in disbursement of payments to farmers because as per government norms, payment is done only on receipt of grains at the storage site of the procurement agency.

“Around 3,000 bags of procured wheat from our farmers have been lying in mandis for the past three days. Their payments will be released only after lifting is completed,” said a commission agent from Karnal’s Nilokheri grain market. On delay in procurement, Karnal deputy commissioner Anish Yadav said nearly 47.65% of total arrival in district mandis has been lifted as of now. “More focus is on lifting now and we are issuing notices to transporters to get the needful done at the earliest,” he added. Similarly, Kurukshetra deputy commissioner Mukul Kumar said lifting has improved and it has not reached above 60% but still, directions have been issued to procurement agencies and transporters to speed up lifting operations.

Vijay Singh Dahiya, director general, food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, said the department is monitoring the lifting operations closely on daily basis and mandi-wise. He said lifting has picked pace and will further improve in the next couple of days.