HARYANA

Khattar govt hikes MSP for wheat, but farmers fret over surplus

Wheat farmer Representational image | PTI

With a promise to procure “each and every grain of wheat” grown by the farmers and provide full payment to them within 48 to 72 hours, the Haryana government under Manohar Lal Khattar has rolled out massive procurement arrangements for the current Rabi season.

Support from farmers is crucial to the BJP, which hopes to repeat its performance of forming a single-party majority government again after the state goes to polls next year.

Ram Niwas, the additional chief secretary, food and civil supplies, said the government would buy wheat from the farmers at a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,735 per quintal of wheat.

The agriculture department has estimated this season's wheat production to be 117.80 lakh tonnes. The government, however, plans to procure 80 lakh tonnes even though politically they have maintained they will procure every grain of wheat grown. This has left farmers associations wondering about the fate of those who have grown wheat that will not be procured.

Last season, the government's procurement agencies had picked up 74.25 lakh tonnes of wheat at Rs 1,625 a quintal.

Niwas said a sum of Rs 4,900 crore has been earmarked for procurement. The state's 383 mandis have been allotted to various procurement agencies, and gunny bags too have been stacked up. As farmers will be lining up, the mandis have been modified for them to wait conveniently till their produce is picked up.

The government is now in the process of finding storage facilities for about half the wheat it intends to procure.