Govt sets wheat procurement target at 40.7 mn tonnes for 2020-21

The Centre on Wednesday set the wheat procurement target at 40.7 million tonnes for the 2020-21 marketing year (April-March) as the country is expected to harvest a record 106.21 million tonnes of the grain this year.

Harvesting of wheat, the main rabi crop, is underway amid COVID-19 lockdown situation. Already, farmers have harvested the crop in around 67 per cent of the total area under cultivation so far.

Although the wheat marketing year runs from April-March, the bulk of procurement is done in the first three months. State-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies undertake purchase at the MSP. Wheat procurement stood at 34.13 million tonnes during the 2019-20 marketing year.

"The central government has given approval for procurement of 40.7 million tonnes of wheat and 11.29 million tonnes of rice in the 2020-21 rabi season," Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in his tweet.

The target has been finalised after assessing the crop estimate submitted by the wheat-growing states, a senior Food Ministry official said.

For the ongoing marketing year, the wheat procurement target for Punjab has been set at 13.5 million tonness, Madhya Pradesh at 10 million tonne, Haryana at 9.5 million tonnes, Uttar Pradesh at 5.5 million tonnes and Rajasthan at 1.7 million tonnes, the official said.

A procurement target of 2 million tonnes each has been set for Uttarakhand and Bihar, while 50,000 tonnes each for Gujarat and other states like Himachal Pradesh for this year, he added.

The Union Agriculture Ministry in its second estimate has pegged wheat output at a record 106.21 million tonnes for the current year, but wheat growing states are expecting much higher production at 118.41 million tonnes.

Besides, the central government has fixed a target of 11.29 million tonnes procurement of rice grown during the rabi season of this year.

The target for Telangana has been fixed at 6.19 million tonnes and for Andhra Pradesh 2.19 million tonnes. The target is set at 9,50,000 tonnes for Odisha, 8,00,000 tonnes for West Bengal, 5,44,000 tonnes for Tamil Nadu, 3,35,000 tonnes for Maharashtra, 2,00,000 tonnes for Kerala, 67,000 tonnes for Assam and 12,000 tonnes for Karnataka during the 2020-21 marketing year.

It may be noted that rice grown during the kharif season is procured in huge quantities by the FCI.