January 18, 2008
India 08-09 local wheat purchases to reach 13 million tonnes
Local wheat purchases by India's federal government in the upcoming crop marketing year should rise 18 percent on-year to 13 million tonnes.
The higher wheat purchase is due to a hike in the market intervention price, a senior government official said Thursday.
India's crop marketing year starts in April.
The federal government buys food grains from farmers at a set intervention price to run its various subsidized sale programs and also to maintain its buffer stocks at a reasonable level.
Alok Sinha, chairman of Food Corporation of India, the country's nodal agency for procurement and storage of foodgrains said that after the government raised the market intervention price of wheat by INR1,500 (US$38) per tonne this year. Alok expressed confidence that more farmers will sell wheat to the government agencies than to private buyers.
India's state agencies buy wheat from April and rice from October.
