Enough wheat stock to meet demand under NFSA: Govt

Government today said it has sufficient buffer stock to meet the demand of wheat under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes.
The Food Ministry in a statement has said it has "comfortable" wheat stock even as procurement has declined by five million tonnes to 23 million tonnes this year due to aggressive buying by private traders.
The ministry's statement comes amid market reports that the country has harvested lower wheat crop this year compared to the government's estimate.
However, the government said it had 32.63 million tonnes of wheat stock at the beginning of this month, while the annual requirement under NFSA is around 24 million tonnes.

It also estimates lower sale of wheat in the open market under its scheme OMSS as private traders have purchased directly from farmers.
"In the current year, private traders have procured wheat aggressively, estimated to be 6-6.5 million tonnes. The demand under OMSS(D) is, therefore expected, to be lower. The wheat stocks position in the country is thus comfortable," the ministry said.

Under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS), the average sale of wheat has been around five to 5.5 million tonnes.
"FCI, is, therefore having sufficient wheat stocks to meet the requirement under NFSA and other Welfare Schemes and also to meet out demand of wheat under OMSS," it added.

This year, FCI has procured 23 million tonnes of wheat, lower than 28.08 million tonnes in 2015-16 marketing year.
The country's wheat output is estimated at 94.04 million tonnes in 2015-16 crop year (July-June), as against 86.53 million tonnes in the year-ago.
Food Corporation of India (FCI) is the government's nodal agency that procures rice and wheat at a support price and distributes these grains under several welfare schemes including NFSA at subsidised rates.