May 19, 2011

 

India to meet wheat procurement target

 

 

Due to the delay of wheat arrival in various mandis across major growing states of Punjab and Haryana, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies purchase of food grains have heightened in the past few weeks and are all ready to achieve the record procurement target.

 

"Although wheat arrivals in mandis across Punjab and Haryana have declined in the past few days, we will achieve the record procurement target," an FCI official said.

 

The FCI official said the daily arrival in mandis across the country have declined to around 200,000 tonnes at present. In Punjab, the daily arrival had been about 40,000 tonnes while in Haryana, the arrival had been around 28,000 tonnes. The purchase of wheat is expected to continue in these states till the end of this month.

 

Wheat purchase by the FCI and other state agencies till Wednesday (May 18) totalled 24.31 million tonnes, against 21.8 million tonnes procured over the same period last year. In anticipation of a bumper wheat crop of more than 84 million tonnes during the current year, the government had hiked this year's procurement target by more than 16% to a new high of 26 million tonnes.

 

The government had announced a bonus of INR50/quintal (US$1.11) for wheat farmers over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of INR1,120/quintal (US$24.90), while the Madhya Pradesh government had declared INR100/quintal (US$2.22) as an additional bonus over the MSP.

 

As per target set for Punjab, the FCI and state agencies have already lifted more than 10.81 million tonnes of wheat against last year's 10.2 million tonnes. Punjab has been the largest contributors to the central pool for wheat for the last numerous years. In Haryana, government agencies have purchased 6.76 million tonnes of wheat versus 6.32 million tonnes last year.

 

In Madhya Pradesh, another key contributor to the government's wheat purchase drive is state government agencies have already purchased more than 3.8 million tonnes this season against last year's 3.3 million tonnes. Even Rajasthan has contributed 920,000 tonnes of wheat to the central pool so far, against 469,000 tonnes last year.

 

The government procures wheat for supplying to states for the implementation targeted public distribution system and maintaining strategic reserve, and buffer stocks norms.

 

Meanwhile, according to latest food ministry data, the total stocks of mostly wheat and rice were more than 59.13 million tonnes at the beginning of this month against the strategic and buffer stocks norms of 21.2 million tonnes.

 

The FCI had 31.37 million tonnes of wheat in its warehouses, the data said.

 

The government procures rice throughout the year from the farmers, while wheat is purchased only during the rabi or winter crop season.