How can farmers sell their wheat at a high price?

The annual arrival of new wheat on the market has already begun. Some provinces in the production areas have launched the minimum purchase price implementation plan. The minimum purchase price for wheat is 1.18 yuan per jin, and the price difference between adjacent grades is set at 0.02 yuan per jin. Purchasing and storage enterprises also strictly follow this plan. But for most farmers, it is beyond reach.

Taking Jiangsu as an example, according to surveys, southern Jiangsu starts harvesting relatively early, and new wheat comes on the market relatively early as well. After Jiangsu launched the minimum purchase price implementation plan on May 26, some large grain trading companies in southern Jiangsu offered purchase prices of 1.15—1.16 yuan per jin. The owners also admitted that this year's wheat quality was similar to last year's, but the purchase price was 2 fen per jin lower. Some rural brokers fabricate many reasons among farmers and even purchase farmers' wheat by downgrading and pressing down the price.

In northern Jiangsu and northeastern Anhui, wheat in mountainous areas began to be harvested in late May, and new wheat has already appeared on the market in scattered amounts. Although this coincided with the launch of the minimum purchase price implementation plan, the price of new wheat was far below the market-support price. Some rural brokers purchased farmers' wheat at the field edge for 1.05-1.12 yuan per jin, 0.06-0.13 yuan per jin less than the market-support purchase price. According to the rural brokers themselves, as new wheat comes on the market in bulk, the price will rise somewhat, but it will still be 0.02-0.04 yuan per jin lower than the market-support price.

The survey shows that more than 80% of wheat growers sold directly to rural brokers at prices far below the market-support price. The main reasons for the above situation are as follows:

⟦NL> Farmers lack transportation tools. Most farmers live some distance from purchasing and storage enterprises, ranging from a few kilometers to more than 10 kilometers. To sell wheat, they feel it is not worthwhile to hire a vehicle, so they sell at the price offered by rural brokers.

There is a lack of labor at home. A considerable number of farming households have laborers working elsewhere, and considering costs and other factors, they did not return during the wheat season, so they had no choice but to sell at the rural brokers' prices.

There is a lack of publicity for the new wheat purchase policy. At present, basically everyone in the grain departments knows about the minimum purchase price implementation plan, but awareness in the vast rural areas is greatly reduced. At present, functional departments seldom go door to door to publicize it to farmers. Some farmers do not even know where the purchasing and storage enterprises are.

Rural brokers lack supervision. Rural brokers go from village to village and household to household, making supervision very difficult, and it is also difficult to deal with rural brokers who downgrade and press down prices.

It is suggested to increase service efforts for wheat growers, encourage and support purchasing and storage enterprises to purchase at farmers' doors; go deep into farming households to strengthen publicity of grain purchase policies, increase supervision, crack down on all acts of downgrading and pressing down prices, and effectively safeguard farmers' interests.