New Delhi

In a major relief to wheat farmers affected by unseasonal rains and hailstorms, the Centre today relaxed quality norms for wheat procurement in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and would ease the norms in other states after testing the grain samples.

Unseasonal rains and hailstorms, being witnessed from February-end, have damaged rabi (winter-sown) crops in about 113 lakh hectares of area in about 14 states.

Total cultivable area in rabi season stands at 600 lakh hectares and wheat is a major rabi crop.

Announcing this decision, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said: “The central government is sensitive about the loss and damage to crops due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms in various states. Hence, has relaxed wheat procurement norms on the basis of requests received from states”.

Earlier this week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi wrote to Paswan seeking relaxation in specifications for procuring foodgrains.

Paswan also said he has “received letters from Congress President Sonia Gandhi and others demanding relaxation in moisture content also”.

“As per norms prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, we permit moisture content in the grain upto 14 per cent. Beyond this level, it is not fit for human consumption,” he added.

Paswan said the quality norms related to ‘lustre lost grains’ and ‘shrivelled and broken grains’ have been relaxed in these three states where procurement has started, but the moisture content level in the grain has not been changed and kept at the permissible limit of up to 14 per cent.

The government cannot buy wheat, which is not fit for human consumption as the grain is used for distribution in public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes, Paswan told reporters here.

As per relaxed norms, the Centre has allowed procurement of wheat having ‘lustre lost grains’ upto 25 per cent in Gujarat, 40 per cent in MP and 50 per cent in Rajasthan.

Broken rice has been relaxed completely in Gujarat but has been fixed at 10 per cent in MP and 9 per cent in Rajasthan from the existing level of 6 per cent.

Stating that the Centre is ready to consider relaxation in procurement norms for other states, Paswan said, “Wheat is yet to arrive in Haryana and UP. Both states have been asked to test samples of wheat jointly with FCI immediately on arrival of crop so that appropriate relaxation in quality norms can be considered for the procurement.”

The Centre has fixed the wheat procurement target at 30.05 million tonnes in 2015-16 marketing year (April- March) as against 28 million tonnes bought by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) during last year.

Wheat production is likely to fall by 4-5 per cent from the initial estimates of 95.76 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) due to unseasonal rains.

“It may be mentioned that uniform specification norms for foodgrains procurement are decided before every procurement season by an expert committee. These specifications should conform to the norm prescribed under the the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006,” the official statement said.

PTI