FARM LEVEL ESTIMATES OF WHEAT GRAIN LOSSES IN AMRITSAR DISTRICT OF PUNJAB, INDIA

The study attempts to assess the wheat losses to get fresh estimates of the net availability of this major food grain in Punjab. Losses at harvest as well as post harvest stages have been estimated based on the sample of 300 wheat growers in the state. Total losses at the harvesting stage has been estimated as 2.62, 1.94, 2.37 and 2.26 per cent of the net production in stratum I, II, III & IV, respectively with an overall losses  of 2.30 per cent at harvesting stage in the sample area. Losses of wheat were found to be 0.03 per cent, 0.10 per cent and 0.03 per cent at transportation stage, during human consumption and during animal feed of net production of wheat, respectively. The grain losses in storage stage were found to be negligible in the sample area reflecting the adequate awareness, due care taken and proper grain protection material used by the farmers in storage process. The total wheat losses at harvest as well as various post-harvest stages, taken together accounted for 2.86 per cent of net wheat production in stratum I, 2.16 per cent in stratum II, 2.48 per cent in stratum III & 2.42 per cent in stratum IV). These losses turned to be highest for small categories i.e. 3.75 per cent followed by 2.73 per cent on medium category. Minimum losses occurred on large holdings, which worked out to be 2.15 per cent of the net wheat production. The per cent wheat lost at post harvest stages was found to be 0.30, 0.20 and 0.09 on small, medium and large farm sized respectively.