While Punjab was the largest contributor to wheat buffer stocks this year, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) purchased less than 10,000 tonnes in nine states. FCI purchased 187.94 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat during the current rabi marketing season (RMS), compared to 433.44 last year. The main reason for this was a significant drop in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana procurement.
Despite the fact that the maximum amount of wheat was procured from Punjab, it was significantly less than the previous season's procurement figures. Wheat purchases from Punjab totaled 96.47 lt, down 37.06 percent from 132.22 lt the previous year.
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, provided a state-by-state breakdown of FCI wheat procurement in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The most precipitation fell in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh procurement fell to 3.36 lt from 56.41 lt the previous year. Madhya Pradesh procurement fell to 46.04 lt (128.16 lt), while Haryana procurement fell to 41.86 lt (84.93 lt).
During RMS 2022-23, procurement of wheat was nil in four of the 13 states mentioned in the response, and it ranged between 10,000 and 2,000 tonnes in the remaining five. According to the Minister, the wheat stock available in the Central pool as of July 1 was 285.10 lt, compared to the buffer norms of 275.80 lt.
Wheat stocks are expected to be 134 lt on April 1, 2023, compared to the norm of 74.6 lt, even after meeting PMGKAY (PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana) requirements through September and the public distribution system, she said. As of April 1, wheat stock in the Central pool stood at 189.9 lt.
In response to a separate question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar stated that wheat production, which was estimated at 111.04 million tonnes (mt) in the second advance estimates for 2021-22, has been revised to 106.41 mt in the third advance estimates.
He claimed that this was caused by a heatwave in March and April of 2022. The estimated wheat production of 106.41 mt in 2021-22 (third advance estimates) is higher than the average production of 103.88 mt over the previous five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), he said.
(Inputs from Business Line)
