March 23, 2010

India expects more storage space for wheat

India expects to add more storage space for the winter-sown wheat crop expected to be harvested from April, federal farm minister Sharad Pawar said on Monday (March 22).

According to Pawar, the government is planning to use the space in closed factories to store the grain.

With the country's wheat output expected to touch a record 82 million tonnes in the crop year ending June 30, 2010, compared with 80.68 million tonnes in the last year, the government was earlier worried about a shortage of storage space.

Wheat stocks were at 18.38 million tonnes, also more than double the buffer stock requirement for welfare programs.

Meanwhile, rice stocks were 26.95 million tonnes as of February 28, more than double the country's buffer requirement of 11.8 million tonnes, mainly due to a bumper purchase in the marketing year that ended September 30, 2009.