Wheat procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government agencies is 23% less on year at 4.16 million tonne (MT) in the current season (April-June) since the operations commenced from April 1.

Ashok K Meena, chairman and MD, FCI, told FE that the procurement operations have been delayed because of late harvesting, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The crops have been hit in these states by the recent unseasonal rains.

According to official data, 9.19 MT of wheat has arrived in the key mandis till April 16. The minimum support price (MSP) operations have picked up pace in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

At 2.32 MT, Madhya Pradesh has been the biggest contributor to wheat procurement so far followed by Punjab (1.07 MT) and Haryana (0.72 MT).

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“In the next one week or so, wheat procurement is expected to cross 8 MT as harvesting of crops has gathered pace because of the warmer climate in the last one week or so,” a food ministry official said.

The government is aiming to procure 34 MT of wheat in the current season to bolster stock, which plummeted to 8.4 MT on April 1, lowest level since 2016.

Officials said that MSP operations have also been delayed because of issues associated with payment to farmers as the Punjab and Haryana governments have decided to compensate the farmers against value cut imposed by the food ministry under relaxed procurement norms for grains which are shriveled, broken and have lustre loss.

Last week, the food ministry 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.

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 `5.31/quintal against the MSP of `2,125/quintal for the current season.

The government’s wheat purchases fell by more than 56.6% to 18.8 MT last year against 43.3 MT in 2021 because of lower output due to the spike in March temperature and increase in private purchase because of global demand.

To replenish the stock, the FCI and state agencies have to purchase at least 30 MT of wheat in this season from farmers so that sufficient quantity of grains is available for the implementation of the 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.

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The MSP operations are carried out to protect the interest of farmers when prices fall below benchmark.

The government has stated that it is hopeful of a record wheat production of 112 MT in the current crop season (July-June), while ruling out any major reduction in grain output from recent un-seasonal rains in key states.

The Roller Flour Millers’ Federation of India, in a survey report, had predicted the wheat production of 102.89 MT in the current crop year.