With a month left for the procurement season to start, the government is aiming at purchasing 34.15 million tonne (MT) of wheat in the rabi marketing season 2023-24 (April-June) in the 10 producing states.

The procurement is expected to bolster the Food Corporation of India (FCI) wheat stocks which are expected to plummet to around 9.6 MT by April 1 against the buffer norm of 7.6 MT.

To replenish the stock, the FCI and state agencies have to purchase at least 30 MT of wheat in the 2023-24 marketing season (April-June) from farmers so that sufficient quantity of grain is available for the implementation of  National Food Security Act and creation of adequate buffer stock. FCI needs to have a buffer of 27.57 MT of wheat by July 1.

Due to lower production and higher global demand, FCI’s procurement in the 2022-23 marketing season fell by more than 56.6% to 18.8 MT against 43.3 MT purchased from the farmers in the previous year. The government last year had set a target of 44 MT of wheat procurement.

 A food ministry official said that target for procurement is only an estimate and actual purchase under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations will depend on production and market prices. At present market prices of wheat are ruling around Rs 2125/quintal for the season.

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The procurement officially begins on April 1 while MSP operations will commence by the third week of this month in Madhya Pradesh. Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are the major states where a major chunk of wheat procurement will be carried out.

Meanwhile, according to the committee set up by the agriculture ministry to assess the condition of wheat crops in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in a meeting on Thursday stated ‘as on date the wheat crop condition is normal in all the major wheat growing states,’.

According to the agriculture ministry statement, in more than 50%  of the north western plain and 75% of Haryana and Punjab, large number of terminal heat stress tolerant wheat varieties have been sown, which will not be affected by the possibility of higher temperature prevailing this month.  

The food ministry has stated that the government agencies are targeting procurement of 0.75 million tonne (MT) of millets during 2022-23 season (Oct-Sept) against the purchase of 0.63 MT in the previous year. Out of this year’s procurement, Karnataka will purchase 0.6 MT of millets which includes 0.5 MT (Ragi) and 0.1 MT (jowar) in the current season.

Besides, the government is also aiming to procure 10.6 MT of rice in the rabi season of the 2022-23 season from 11 states. So far FCI has procured more than 47 MT of rice equivalent to paddy in the ongoing kharif season.