July 23, 2012

As the country has sufficient stock, Indian government said Saturday (July 21) there is no need to ban exports of rice and wheat because of poor rains.

On the back of bumper production, the country is currently exporting various agricultural commodities including rice, wheat, sugar, cotton and corn.

"I don't think there is any reason to be concerned. As of now, there is no problem about availability of food grains and I do not think, we need to put our export commitment on hold," Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna told reporters.

He said "if India wants to be a stable player in the international market, we must continue with exports."

Monsoon, the lifeline of Indian agriculture and economy, has been deficient by 22% so far, affecting sowing of kharif crops. The deficient rains have raised concern about the possible impact on crop production.

Last year, the country had received good monsoon helping farmers to harvest a record food grains of 257.44 million tonnes, which includes 104.32 million tonnes of rice and 93.90 million tonnes of wheat.

In September, last year, the government had permitted export of wheat and non-basmati rice in the wake of a record production. Since then, the country has shipped five million tonnes of non-basmati rice and 1.5 million tonnes of wheat.

The government recently allowed export of two million tonnes of wheat from its godowns to clear surplus stock.

Apart from food grains, the country is likely to export 3.5 million tonnes of sugar and 15 million bales of cotton in 2011-12 marketing year (October-September).

Recently, the government also allowed export of skimmed milk powder, casein and other milk products due to higher production.