Punjab: wheat protests and new machines

Farmers in Amritsar protested on April 16 over delayed wheat purchases, as Punjab simultaneously pushes more machines into fields to collect and sell wheat straw. (tribuneindia.com, tribuneindia.com) The protest was led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office and was part of a statewide call across Punjab. Union leaders Kashmir Singh Dhangai and Parvinder Singh Pandori Waraich said farmers had been waiting in mandis for more than 10 days. (tribuneindia.com) Farmers said heavy rain, storms and strong winds damaged wheat this season, leaving some grain discoloured or slightly damaged. In Khanna mandi, farmers told The Indian Express on April 15 that central teams were still sampling grain for shrivelling and loss of lustre, and agencies were buying only wheat that met standard specifications. (tribuneindia.com, indianexpress.com) The procurement delays came after another disruption at the start of the season. Commission agents, known locally as arhtiyas, went on strike from April 1 over commission rates, Employees’ Provident Fund deductions and payments for grain stored in silos, and Hindustan Times reported Punjab expected about 122 lakh tonnes of wheat to arrive in mandis this season. (hindustantimes.com) At the same time, Punjab is widening the use of crop-residue machines beyond paddy. The Tribune reported on April 16 that balers, rakers and combine harvesters are now being used together in wheat fields so straw can be gathered, baled, stored and sold instead of left loose after harvest. (tribuneindia.com) That shift builds on a longer anti-burning drive. Punjab Pollution Control Board data cited by The Tribune showed 14,511 wheat-residue burning cases in 2022, 11,355 in 2023 and 11,904 in 2024, while kharif-season stubble-burning cases fell to 10,909 in 2024 from 36,663 in 2023 and 49,922 in 2022. (tribuneindia.com) Punjab has spent Rs 1,680 crore on subsidies for stubble-management machines from 2018 to 2024, and 1.48 lakh machines have been distributed on subsidy in the state, including 62,000 super-seeders, according to figures cited in the same report. The Union government’s crop-residue program gives farmers 50% assistance for machinery purchases and 80% assistance to cooperatives, farmer producer organizations and panchayats for custom hiring centres. (tribuneindia.com, agriinfra.dac.gov.in) Officials frame the machinery push as an air-pollution measure as much as a farm-economics one. The Union crop-residue portal says burning residue destroys soil microorganisms and worsens air quality, while Punjab entrepreneurs and custom-hiring operators told The Tribune that mechanised straw collection can turn wheat residue into cattle feed and other marketable biomass. (agriinfra.dac.gov.in, tribuneindia.com) The immediate problem for farmers is that both stories meet in the mandi: wheat has to be bought before cash starts moving. In Amritsar, the union demanded immediate procurement of the full crop at the minimum support price and withdrawal of what it called unnecessary conditions. (tribuneindia.com)