Amidst concern that large quantities of wheat from last year?s harvest is still lying in the open days before new crop starts hitting the market, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Monday ruled out any storage problem and said all possible steps would be taken to minimise losses.

?There would not any problem for storing the new wheat crop,? Pawar told reporters after the meeting of National Cooperative Development Corporation?s general council.

Pawar said the Centre has requested state governments to step up storage facilities for the forthcoming rabi crop.

FCI and state procuring agencies would be starting their wheat procurement from April 1.

Latest government data indicate that government has around 18 million tonne of wheat stocks which is much above the buffer and strategic norms.

FCI has 24.18 million tonne (owned & hired) of storage capacity in over 1,451 godowns all over India . As on September 2009, FCI had 27.71 million tonne of storage capacity. It has its own covered storage capacity to the tune of 12.97 million tonne and hired capacity of 12.01 million tonne. The corporation had covered and plinth storage space of 2.71 million tonne.

The government is anticipating a bumper wheat crop this year mainly because of conducive weather which has helped in proper germination of the crop.

SS Singh, project director, directorate of wheat research, a Karnal-based based body under Indian Council of Agricultural Research, had recently said due to favourable weather conditions and several measures taken by the government to control the spread of yellow rust, crop production could cross a record 82 million tonne this year.

Last week Union agriculture secretary also said the government is anticipating a better wheat crop than last year. The country has already witnessed a significant jump in wheat production in the last two years. Wheat production in 2009 was around 80.58 million while output in 2007-08 was 78.59 million tonne.

More than 10 million hectares of land have been put under wheat during the current rabi season in northern Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

According to agriculture ministry officials, close to 9 million hectare in eastern India is under wheat, which would contribute significantly to the overall wheat production. ?Harvesting of crop would start after two weeks in northern and eastern India,? an agriculture ministry official said.

?Bengal to retain top slot in rice production?

Kolkata West Bengal is likely to produce 148.80 lakh tonne of rice this year, higher than the internal requirement of the state at 139.43 lakh tonne. Announcing this at the state Budget on Monday, finance minister Asim Dasgupta said with this production, West Bengal will continue to be the top rice producer in the country.

The production of potato too will increase from 55 lakh tonne in 2009 to 95 lakh tonne in the current year, he said, making Bengal the second largest producer of potato in the country. But as a result of a fall in the price of potato due to excessive production – prices are at Rs 5 a kg in municipal markets – the government has decided to protect potato farmers’ interests to an extent. Dasgupta said the government will buy potatoes through cooperatives and the West Bengal Essential Commodities Supplies Corporation at Rs 3.50 per kg to be kept in cold storages “following relevant rules”. Once the market price rises, the potato in cold storages will be sold through ration shops at a price lower than the market price. The state government is pitching in with Rs 400 crore for the purpose. Dasgupta admitted even such measures will not be enough to sort out the pricing problem because production “has been too high”.

Last year, potato prices had shot up to Rs 30 a kg. The government is also mulling export options for the bumper potato crop.