Informist, Thursday, Apr 25, 2024

By Afra Abubacker and Sayantan Sarkar

NEW DELHI – The Food Corp of India's wheat procurement this rabi marketing season was down 20% year-on-year at 13.58 mln tn as of Wednesday, an official told Informist today. The procurement, which started a month early in March, is lower than last year as untimely rainfall has affected the quality of the staple grain that's coming into the market.

In the corresponding period last year, FCI had procured 17.1 mln tn of wheat, according to the official. The target for wheat procurement in 2024-25 has been set at 30-32 mln tn, against 34.2 mln tn last year.

Procurement of wheat in Punjab was sharply down by nearly 40% at 4.57 mln tn as of Wednesday, the official said. In Madhya Pradesh, procurement of the grain has fallen 28% on-year to 3.11 mln tn, while it was largely unchanged in Haryana at 5.18 mln tn as of Wednesday. The three states are among the biggest producers of wheat in the country.

Due to unfavourable weather patterns in the crop year 2023-24 (Jul-Jun) and lower procurement since March, the Department of Food and Public Distribution on Wednesday relaxed the uniform specification of wheat for procurement in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for 2024-25. The limit of shrivelled and broken grains of wheat has been relaxed to 20% in Rajasthan and 15% in Madhya Pradesh, without any cut in value. Earlier, this limit was 6% for both the states. The limit for loss of lustre has been relaxed to 50% in Madhya Pradesh and 70% in Rajasthan. The department said the limit for damaged and slightly damaged grain should not be more than 6%. "Any deterioration of the quality of wheat stock procured under relaxed norms during storage shall be the sole responsibility of the state government," it said in a letter to the states.

In view of depleting wheat stocks with the government agencies due to last year's lower crop and large welfare programmes, the Centre started wheat procurement early in the season, ambitious about refilling the stocks. Though the marketing season typically starts on Apr 1, government agencies advanced procurement by a month to coincide with the arrival of the crop at mandis. State wheat purchases are underway in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Bihar.

Last year, sales under the open market scheme were at an all-time high and the government also extended the free food grain programme for the next five years. Further, it also started selling wheat flour, atta, at a subsidised rate, which also weighed on the government's wheat stocks.

The government has set the minimum support price of wheat at 2,275 rupees per 100 kg. However, to encourage farmers to sell the crop, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have announced a bonus of 125 rupees per 100 kg over and above the minimum support price. End

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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