Wheat procurement down by 75% so far this yr

Wheat procurement has declined by 75% to 13.04 lakh tonnes so far this year as arrivals are yet to pick up in Haryana and Punjab, which together made up for nearly three-fourth of the central pool in 2010.

The procurement stood at 51.2 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

Food Corporation of India (FCI) had procured 22.5 million tonnes in the entire 2010-11 marketing year (April-March), of which Punjab had contributed the most at 10.2 million tonnes followed by Haryana at 6.34 million tonnes.

Procurement in Haryana and Punjab, which generally starts from April 1, has been very low till yesterday because of less arrival of crop in markets owing to delay in harvesting.

In Haryana, FCI and other state agencies have procured 2.62 lakh tonnes till yesterday as against 28.32 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. Arrivals of wheat in the state has declined to 2.63 lakh tonnes against 28.32 lakh tonnes in the review period.

The procurement in Punjab so far is only 8,819 tonnes as compared with 9.45 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of last year.

In Madhya Pradesh, the procurement has declined to 10.17 lakh tonnes so far this year against 12.93 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

This is despite the state government paying Rs 100  per quintal more to farmers than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the Centre at Rs 1,120 per quintal.

FCI expects the procurement to touch 26.2 million tonnes in 2011-12 marketing year on the back of record wheat production of 84.27% in 2010-11 crop year(July-June).