Overview
- The Union food ministry approved relaxed wheat specifications on Friday for Punjab and Chandigarh, applying them retroactively to the start of the Rabi Marketing Season 2026–27.
- New limits allow up to 70% lustre loss, 15% shrivelled and broken grains, and 6% damaged and slightly damaged grains without a price cut, protecting the MSP of ₹2,585 per quintal.
- Stocks bought under these eased norms must be stored and recorded separately, with any quality loss and related costs assigned to the state and the UT, and those lots ordered for priority sale.
- Procurement had slowed for more than a week as arrivals swelled in mandis, and farm unions who planned a rail blockade deferred it by three days after assurances that lifting would speed up.
- FCI and central teams gathered nearly 300 samples from 78 mandis to back the change, and officials now press for faster lifting and 48‑hour payments as Punjab seeks parity with relaxations granted earlier to Haryana and Rajasthan.