Wheat procurement up 30% on year

Wheat procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government agencies for the current season has crossed 25.2 million tonne (MT) so far, up by 30% on year.

Sources told FE that the wheat purchases from the farmers by agencies will cross 26.5 MT this season (April-June) against the total purchase of 18.79 MT of grain in the last season (April-June), 2022.

Currently around 0.2 MT of wheat is being purchased from the farmers daily.

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According to the food ministry, wheat has been purchased from two million farmers this season so far and Rs 47,000 crore paid as minimum support price (MSP).

The major contributor to wheat procurement so far has been Punjab (11.86 MT), Haryana (6.21 MT) and Madhya Pradesh (6.65 MT). MSP purchases in Uttar Pradesh (0.17 MT) and Rajasthan (0.28 MT) have been marginal.

At the beginning of the session, the government had set a target to procure 34 MT of wheat to bolster stock which had plummeted to 8.4 MT on April 1, lowest level since 2016.

As on May 1, the FCI has wheat stock of 28.52 MT while the government needs 18.4 MT annually for the implementation of the national food security act.

The food ministry last month has allowed purchase of shriveled and broken grain up to 18% from farmers with prescribed value cut against existing limit of 6% in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

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The ministry on March 31 had relaxed procurement norms, by allowing purchase of grains with lustre losses above 10% from farmers in Madhya Pradesh with a marginal value cut of only Rs 5.31/quintal against the MSP of Rs 2,125/quintal for the current season.