This comes in the backdrop of a late arrival of the crop at the markets due to the untimely rains.

However, the slow lifting of wheat from the mandis is still an issue and is creating a glut in the mandis, said officials associated with the procurement process.

On Wednesday (April 26), the total arrival of wheat this season crossed 95.70 LMT. The figure last year in the same period stood at 93.19 LMT. Of 95.70 LMT, 94.30 LMT has been purchased — 90.64 LMT by the government and 3.66 LMT by private players.

Earlier, Punjab had fixed the target of procurement of wheat around 132 LMT but due to the unseasonal rains, the yield was affected.

“It was a bumper crop this year till mid-March but then heavy rains came during the ripening period of the crop which led to some damage,” said an official.

Wednesday, nearly 6 LMT (it was 5.97 LMT) wheat arrived at the mandis while last year by April 26, the daily arrival had gone down to around 2.06 LMT.

Out of the 23 districts, 70 per cent of the total purchase has taken place in 10 districts with Sangrur topping the chart where 10.87 LMT wheat has been purchased, including 9.09 LMT by the government agencies.

Patiala is at number two with a purchase of 8.35 LMT, including 22,361 tonne by private players while Ferozepur saw 6.81 LMT purchase. Other districts which have witnessed high purchases this year till date include Ludhiana (6.57 LMT), Bathinda (6.22 LMT), Tarn Taran (5.82 LMT), Muktsar (5.65 LMT), Moga (5.54 LMT), Fazilka (4.81 LMT) and Mansa (4.79 LMT).

Several parts of these districts were badly affected due to the heavy rains but a very high yield was recorded from the areas in these districts where the crop remained unaffected.

Despite a highly unfavourable weather this year, Punjab seems to have achieved around 90 per cent of its procurement target set before the change in weather.

In Punjab, the Food Corporation of India and four state agencies — Pungrain, Markfed, Punbus and Warehouse — procure the crop for the central pool while the private players purchase to meet the demand of their own factories and business establishments.

This season till now, the maximum purchase was done by Pungrain at 28.08 LMT followed by Markfed, which purchased 23.28 LMT, Punbus (21.38 LMT) and Warehouse, which purchased 15.06 LMT.

The central agency, FCI, has purchased 2.82 LMT only till date.

Meanwhile, the lifting is quite slow and to date around 38 LMT (40 per cent of the total purchase) wheat is still lying in the mandis, creating space problems.

The basic objective of procurement is to maintain the food security of the country and to provide a minimum respectable price for the farmers’ crop. In the procurement seasons, farmers bring their crops to the designated mandis and from there the FCI directly or through the state government agencies procure the crop for the central pool on MSP.

Also, private traders come to the mandis and farmers sell their crops to them if they offer little more than the MSP or even equal to the MSP.

Over the years, FCI has lowered its share of direct purchase from the farmers. Earlier, it used to procure 25 per cent to 35 per cent of the wheat directly from farmers during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Now, the FCI’s direct purchase is just around 5 percent to 6 per cent. While last year it procured 5.56 per cent wheat last year, this year till now it has purchased 3 per cent of the yield directly from the farmers.