Punjab may face space crunch for wheat stock

Punjab could face an agriculture crisis due to acute shortage of storage space in the run-up to the wheat procurement season that commenced this week.

The procurement of wheat may suffer a set-back resulting in strong resentment among farmers. Fearing protests, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal sought the prime minister’s intervention on Wednesday to direct central agencies for expeditiously moving the food grain stocks from Punjab.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has so far allowed procurement of 13 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, whereas the state had targeted to procure 110 lakh metric tonnes.

The state already has around 150 lakh metric tonnes of food grain stocks, leaving no space for fresh arrivals of wheat.
As per a survey conducted by the FCI, Punjab was falling short for storing almost 71 lakh metric tonnes. Badal said in view of this alarming shortage the state procurement agencies were compelled to store wheat in the open, in rice mills, and ‘mandi’ yards.

More than 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat stocks was damaged in the rains last year.

While the FCI has blamed state agencies for their “gross negligence in preserving and protecting the wheat stocks”, state officials say it was “because of poor speed of the FCI to move wheat stocks out of the state.