Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh
Record wheat production in Punjab
and Haryana has brought both agony and ecstasy to the farmers and the officials
of the procurement agencies. While the two States — the food basket of the
country — are celebrating a bumper wheat production, they simply do not know
how to store the massive volumes procured this year.
While the scientific storage
capacity is limited and at best can store three-fourth of the procurement, the
slow movement of stocks out of the region has compounded the woes of the two
States.
So far nearly 13 million tonnes
of wheat has already been procured in Punjab this season
which is the highest procurement in the last few decades. It is already 2
million tonnes higher than the target of 11 million tonnes set by the State
Government before the beginning of the procurement season. The Punjab
Government and its agencies are wondering where to store the food grain and
have hit a wall as the godowns are overflowing and the movement out of the
State has been extremely slow.
Haryana is no different and the
worry lines are only growing even as the State celebrates a record production.
The procurement has touched 8.6 million tonnes against the fixed target of
seven million tonnes.
Now that the Food Ministry on
Monday supported the suggestion of Rangarajan panel to allow export of 2
million tons of wheat from Government stocks immediately to ease pressure on
storages, the two States are breathing easy. But still the two State
Governments want more. For them, the export of wheat would serve two purposes.
While the problem of storage would be solved, it will also serve as an
incentive for farmers as they can hope for a better MSP next year if the Centre
formulates a permanent policy on wheat exports.
The C Rangarajan panel was
constituted to suggest ways and means to ease pressure that record food grain
production had created on storages across the country, particularly Punjab ,
Haryana and Madhya Pradesh in recent years. The panel suggested immediate
export of 2 million tons of wheat from Government stocks, and additional supply
of 13 million tons of the grain via ration shops and in the open market.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash
Singh Badal was the first to raise the demand for exports. He asked the Centre
to allow export of wheat from the State, being the major producer of the crop
to bail out the beleaguered Punjabi farmers already reeling under debt stress.
In his meetings and letters to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in the
last couple of months, Badal has been consistently raising the demand for
permitting export of wheat.
“Whenever there is an acute
shortage of the food grains in the country; Punjab was
always reminded of its obligation towards the national food pool. On the
contrary, whenever there was surplus food production as of now in the case of
wheat, Centre pays no heed to our requests, which tantamount to its sheer
discrimination against Punjab,” Badal said, hours before the decision of the
Centre to allow export.
Officials and agencies associated
with procurement of wheat say that decision on the movement of wheat has to be
taken on an emergency basis as only a month remains for the monsoon to hit the
northern region. “Piles of wheat without any coverage and others where only a
polythene sheet has been placed on top of the sacks could easily get rotten and
become unfit for consumption after rains. It has happened in the past and the
state stares at it again,” said an official, who did not want to be identified.
In fact, on the day procurement
of wheat began in Punjab, it already had nearly 7 million tonnes in the godowns
which was much more than what is normally kept for meeting any possible food
crisis. “The movement to other parts of the country was extremely slow in the
last 12 months — both Rabi and Kharif crops,” an official admitted, adding that
the Centre needs to look into this aspect seriously and urgently.
A section of the farmers have
alleged that the “policy of allowing wheat to rot was deliberate” as it helps
some breweries pick up the rotten wheat at throwaway prices and also the flour
mills who mix certain chemicals to whiten the wheat and make it fit for human
consumption.
State and Centre officials deny
any such practice. They simply put up their hands in despair and say what they
can do when the storage capacity is not there, private sector is not coming up
in the food storage sector and the food grains have to face the vagaries of
nature lying in the open. (May 22, 2012)
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