The freakish weather last week hit the arrival of wheat in entire Majha region,comprising border districts of Amritsar ,Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran. So far,80,000 tonnes of grain has been lifted in this district which is much less than last year,till date,as over 1.50 lakhs tonnes were lifted till now. Similarly,grain arrivals in Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran have been slow but are now picking up pace. There was a bit of trouble for us due to an un-seasonal rain laced with hail storms. This delayed harvesting but now we are using combine-machines and harvesting is at its peak presently,said Sada Singh from village Bandala who brought his produce here today to sell at local Bhagtawala grain market. There is no problem of procurement so far. I am also getting price as per MSP of Rs 1120 per quintal,fixed by the Centre plus Rs 50 as bonus,he said. He,along with other farmers,including Malkit Singh from Pandori-Waraich and Gurbhej Singh from Varpal villages,however demanded bonus from Punjab government. The input costs on producing the wheat have gone up. The MSP is low. We hoped the state government would also announce some bonus which is yet to come,they said. They also said that so far the government agencies were procuring the produce and they wanted the private players to jump into purchasing,which would generate competition and they might get better prices.
