Chandigarh: In a major relief to wheat farmers, the Centre on Friday approved a significant relaxation in wheat procurement norms for the current rabi marketing season.
Announcing the decision, Union minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution Pralhad Joshi posted on X: “This decision is aimed at reducing the hardship for our farmers who have faced the brunt of untimely weather. By easing these norms, we ensure that every grain produced with hard labour finds a buyer at a fair price.”
The relaxed specifications are applicable with immediate effect and are retroactive to the start of this rabi season, providing a much-needed safety net for the region’s agricultural economy.
The relaxation of quality norms was a key demand to prevent private traders from exploiting the situation through distress sales at prices below the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,585 per quintal.
The intervention follows a formal request submitted by the Punjab government on April 9 after unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms lashed the region during the peak harvesting period. The adverse weather led to widespread lodging of the crop, resulting in shrivelled grains and significant lustre loss, which rendered much of the produce technically ineligible under standard fair average quality specifications.
Responding to the crisis, the Centre deputed specialised field teams on April 10 to conduct a granular assessment of the crop damage. These teams, comprising officials from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the ministry, collected nearly 300 samples from 78 mandis (grain markets) across 22 districts of Punjab.
Based on the field data, the ministry has authorised the following relaxations to ensure that farmers are not turned away from state-run mandis: Shrivelled and broken grains limits increased up to 20% (up from the standard 6%) without any value cut; relaxation approved for grains with up to 80% lustre loss; and limits for damaged and slightly damaged grains eased to approximately 6%.
The procurement season, which officially began on April 1, had seen a sluggish start. Government agencies were initially hesitant to lift rain-affected stocks, leading to a glut in the mandis and rising concern among farmers.
Data indicated that by mid-April, wheat arrivals were significantly higher than the previous year, yet procurement was lagging due to quality concerns.
Earlier this week, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann met with Pralhad Joshi in New Delhi to emphasise the “storage crisis” in the state, noting that nearly 155 lakh metric tonnes of old foodgrains were still clogging godowns.
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