Amritsar (Punjab): Wheat crop with more moisture content hindering procurement

The district administration has appealed to the farmers not to bring wheat crop with moisture content more than the permissible limit to the grain markets. In a meeting held here today, the officials of Mandi Board informed Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori about the problems faced by procurement agencies due to more moisture content in the wheat grains.

The officials feared that if the farmers continue to bring produce with more moisture, it would soon cause a shortage of space at the grain markets and affect the procurement process.

On this, Deputy Commissioner Thori asked the officials involved in the procurement process to ensure that farmers only bring fully ripened crop which has moisture content of less than 12 per cent.

The recent showers in the region which continued in the city on Tuesday morning, has created alarm among the wheat growers and it is feared that it would hasten the harvesting. The district agriculture officials stated that panic harvesting due to unfavourable weather conditions would go against the farmers as they would not be able to sell their crop.

Agriculture experts stated that though it had rained on many occasions in the past few days, it had not caused any adverse effect on the wheat crop as the showers were scanty.

Meanwhile, grain markets in the district witnessed the arrival of 27,884 metric tonnes of wheat on Tuesday. With this, the total arrival so far has reached 69,805 MT with a total procurement of 47,254 MT out of which 41,768 MT has been procured by government agencies. With this, nearly 68 per cent of the wheat crop has been procured.

Mandi Board officials stated that most of the unsold crop is the stock with more moisture content. They stated that if farmers bring ‘dry’ crop to the market, it would be procured instantly, without any delay.

This article has been republished from The Tribune.