Ensure India emerges as world's source of quality food grain: PM Modi

Review meeting indicates that the government might not immediately curb exports of the food grain.

Indian wheat and other agricultural products must be of high quality to be the world’s standard source for food, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a review meeting on Thursday, indicating that the government might not immediately curb exports of the food grain.

Modi called upon government officials to help farmers after the meeting briefed him on India’s wheat supply, stock and exports. He was also appraised on the impact of high temperatures in the months of March-April 2022 on crop production, the status of procurement and export and also the prevailing market rates which are beneficial to farmers, an official statement said.

The meeting was attended by top officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and secretaries of the department of food, public distribution and agriculture.

On Wednesday, food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey told reporters that though India’s wheat production in 2022-23 marketing is expected to fall by almost 5.7 per cent to 105 million tonnes from an earlier estimate of 111.32 million tonnes and official purchases are set to halve to just 19.5 million tonnes, but still it won’t impose any curbs on exports as year-end closing stocks are seen adequate after meeting all requirements.

Pandey said the agriculture ministry has revised the wheat production estimate downwards to 105 million tonnes for the 2021-22 crop year from 111.3 million tonnes earlier due to early onset of summer. India's wheat production stood at 109.59 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year (July-June).

Meanwhile, on procurement, the food secretary said that government's wheat procurement is expected to fall to 19.5 million tonnes in the 2022-23 marketing year (April-March), much lower than the last year, due to several factors, including higher market prices of wheat in some states compared to the minimum support price (MSP), stocks being held by farmers and traders in anticipation of further price rise and lower production than estimated in some states.