Private Wheat Buying Surges, Diversification Stalls & Water Worries Grow

Private traders have lifted an unprecedented 468K Metric Tonnes (MT) of wheat from Panjab mandis (grain markets) this rabi (winter) season, paying USD 30.8 (INR 2,630) per quintal against the USD 24 (INR 2,425) Minimum Support Price (MSP). Their 10% share of the 4.6M MT haul is expected to trim government procurement and ease pressure on godowns as 1.9M wooden crates are patched, leased or reused. Seed firms, cattle-feed makers, and commission agents are also buying wheat while many farmers are stocking grain hoping for higher resale prices. Sangrur leads the buying at 129K MT. Yet, the state’s diversification rhetoric lags reality: the USD 585K Punjab Horticulture Advancement and Sustainable Entrepreneurship (PHASE) fund and the Bhav Antar Bhugtan Yojana (Price Differential Scheme), promised in successive budgets, remain unlaunched. This has delayed chilli-cluster development in Ferozepur and deferred compensation for potato, cauliflower, tomato, and capsicum growers. A proposed USD 30 Basmati MSP has also been shelved. Horticulture already covers 482K hectares—up 42% since 2011–12—and generates produce worth USD 3.1B, or 17.03% of agricultural GDP of USD 18.2B, but officials concede paperwork outruns fieldwork. Meanwhile, the government’s early-June transplanting window will encourage farmers to sow Pusa-44 which the govt. has banned. Experts warn the new 1 Jun start may revive the variety whose decline saved USD 55.8M in electricity and 5B Cubic Foot groundwater in 2024. May and June are characterized by disproportionately large evapo-transpiration losses and exorbitant irrigation requirements to raise paddy. Analysts add that pushing Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) before monsoon will inflate water demand. Punjab Agricultural University urges sowing short-duration alternative seeds after 20 Jun to uphold the Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 whose purpose was to notify a later date and protect aquifers. Meanwhile, Bayer’s Asia Region head Malu Nachreiner predicts a non-GM herbicide-tolerant hybrid rice for India by 2031, potentially boosting water-efficient DSR (earlier coverage).