US wheat not fit to be imported: Report
16 Jul 2007, 0157 hrs IST,Nitin Sethi,TNN

NEW DELHI: A crucial report concluding that US wheat is not fit to be
imported is being kept under wraps by a government that doesn't want
to annoy the Americans at a time of blossoming bilateral ties despite
the stalemated nuclear deal.

The report, prepared by a team of Indian officials visiting the US in
May 2007, has recorded the presence of 19 invasive weeds that Indian
regulations consider dangerous and require quarantine. Another two
that India still has not verified for their ability to cause harm have
also been found to be associated with US wheat. It has also recorded
leakages in the processing of wheat that allows the weeds to escape in
the consignments.

The report, which TOI got access to from government records, makes it
clear why the US administration is putting up such a shrill campaign
for lowering the conditions that currently disqualify US wheat from
import.

The finding marks a setback to US efforts to find a market for its
farmers that grow wheat on 60 million hectares and export almost half
of the produce. With India showing interest in importing 3-5 million
tonnes of wheat this year, US looks upon it as a loss of a big
business opportunity. Last year too, the US was unable to export its
wheat to India because of the tight safety regulations. This year,
however, the US was expecting the tide to change in its favour with a
concerted level of lobbying. But so far India has denied any
possibility of lowering the safety measures in order to allow import
from US.

The report noted that Indian regulations demand that there be less
than 100 quarantine weed seeds in a 200-kg sample whereas US is
demanding that India allow 12,000 quarantined weed seeds per 200 kg of
wheat. The visiting team also found on inspection at the Columbia
Grain Export Facility, US, that "a lot of weed seeds, including those
of quarantine, still remain in the final processed product..."

Usually, India has a zero tolerance policy against any weed that is on
the quarantine list but the government modified the rules last year in
order to import wheat and allowed 100 weed seeds per 200 kg as an
exception, keeping national food security in mind.

But food-security issues are raked up by the history of contaminated
imports as well that earlier hit Indian economy and agriculture quite
hard. Phalaris minor or canary grass, which is known to cause 15-50%
yield losses in Indian wheat, was introduced in 1961 from Mexico
through contaminated foodgrain. Back-of-the-envelope estimates suggest
that in Punjab and Haryana alone, the economic losses because of the
weed run into Rs 3,700 crore annually.

Another weed, Parthenium Hysteophorus, also introduced to India with
import of contaminated wheat import, is today spread over 7-8 million
hectares of non-cropped area and estimates show could take up to Rs
1,600 crore to control.

India has also suggested to US to undertake adequate cleaning as a
mitigation measure by which it can comply with Indian standards. The
expert team noted that there was considerable potential to reduce weed
content in the US wheat but the Americans have shown reluctance at the
moment.

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