India’s wheat requirement will increase to 92-100 million tonne (MT) in 2020 from the current level of 65-70 MT, said Vinod Kapoor, chairman of Wheat Products Promotion Society.
He says that wheat consumption in the country has been increasing year-on-year. Currently, of the total 70-75 million tonne of annual production, 60-65 tonne is used for consumption while the remaining wheat is used for seed and other farming purposes.
He said the government should look into all possibilities to increase the productivity in coming years to meet the demand. In fact, the crop area under wheat cultivation has also been declining year-on-year as farmers are switching over to other activities. The wheat acreage declined by 2% to 27.5 million hectares this year.
However, around 20 million hectares covered under wheat in Indo-Ganges belt has the potential to improve productivity. The present productivity in these lands stood at 2.5 tonne per hectare but that could be increased to 4.5 tonne per hectare with the adoption of appropriate farm mechanism.
India’s wheat production is expected to touch 75 million tonne in the 2008 crop year. The global wheat production will be higher during the coming crop year starting July 2008, Kapoor said.