Food Corporation of India and state agencies have procured over 306 lakh tonnes of wheat so far in the country. Procurement has stopped in most of the states. As per the data complied across the country on June 19, 2017, Wheat procurement has reached to 306.48 lakh tonnes in the current rabi marketing season 2017-18 against 229.61 lakh tones procured in the whole season last year.
Only Punjab has procured wheat higher than its target. Total wheat bought by the govt agencies in the state is at 117.05 lakh tones while the state government had set a target of 115 lakh tones for procurement. Last year, the procurement agencies had bought 111.42 lakh tonnes in Punjab.
The agencies engaged in procurement bought 74.11 lakh tonnes of wheat in Haryana against 67.52 lakh tonnes procured last year while the state govt had fixed a target of 75 lakh tonnes for procurement of wheat in the season.
Wheat procurement in Madhya Pradesh totaled at 67.24 lakh tonnes against 39.92 lakh tonnes purchased by the govt last year. However, the target fixed by the govt remained underachieved. The state government had set a target to procure 85 lakh tonnes for this season. The government agencies have procured 35.62 lakh tonnes of wheat till date in Uttar Pradesh while the state government had raised its target from 30 lakh tonnes to 80 lakh tonnes. However, current figure of wheat procured is higher than last year as the agencies engaged in procurement of wheat could buy only 7.97 lakh tonnes only in the previous rabi marketing season in UP. In Rajasthan, govt agencies have procured over 12 lakh tonnes of wheat against the target of 17.50 lakh tonnes.
The government of India has set a target to buy 330 lakh tonnes of wheat for central pool this rabi marketing season 2017-18.
The agriculture ministry has estimated wheat production all time high at 974.4 lakh tones in the third advance estimates released by the agriculture ministry. This year’s wheat production is higher by 1.66% than the previous record production of 958.5 lakh tonnes achieved during 2013-14. Production of wheat during 2016-17 is also higher by 48.3 lakh tonnes (5.21%) than the average wheat production. The current year’s production is higher by 51.5 lakh tonnes (5.58%) as compared to wheat production of 922.9 lakh tonnes achieved during 2015-16.
