Helped by a bumper rabi wheat crop along with expectation of good kharif rice output, the buffer stock of food grain in the country is expected to be significantly higher than the norm. Besides, the government is expected to maintain adequate availability of food grain, edible oils and sugar to check rise in prices.
According to a ministry of agriculture release on Thursday, the stock of wheat would be 6 million tonne by April 2009 against the norm of 4 million tonne, while the rice stock would be around 6.4 million tonne by October 2008 against the buffer norm of 5.2 million tonne. The rice procurement during the kharif marketing season during 2007-08, on September 10, 2008 the stock was 27.3 million tonne against the total procurement of 25.1 million tonne during 2006-7, posting an increase of 8.9%.
With a view to keep prices of foodgrain in the open market under check and also to meet the rising demand during the forthcoming festivals, the government has also made an ad-hoc allocation of about 96,500 tonne of wheat under Above the Poverty Line (APL) category during the months of July – September 2008 to various states.
According to the statement, a further ad-hoc additional of 63,000 tonne of wheat at APL rates have also been released for September to the states. Besides, additional allocations of 36,000 tonne of rice and 1.9 lakh tonne of wheat at APL-rates have been issued for the festival season to various states.
Under the scheme for distribution of subsidised edible oil, out of the 1 million tonne of subsidised edible oils to be distributed during 2008-2009 through state governments, orders have been placed for 3.12 lakh tonne of edible oil. Of this, 2.24 lakh tonne of edible oil has been shipped, the statement said.