Wheat procurement set to rise by 10 pc to 27.9 MT this year

Government is likely to procure 27.9 million tonnes of wheat during 2014-15 marketing year (April-March), an increase of 10 per cent over the previous year on account of higher lifting from Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
Last year, the FCI and other state agencies had procured 25.4 million tonnes (MT) of the crop.
According to latest official data, total wheat arrival in grain markets as on date is about 34.5 MT. Of this, 27.9 MT have been lifted by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state agencies.
The remaining 6.6 MT of wheat have been lifted by private traders and flour millers.

"Wheat procurement for the current season has almost been completed and so far 27.9 MT of wheat has been procured by FCI and other state agencies," an FCI spokesperson said.
Wheat procurement in the largest producing state, Punjab has gone up by 5.5 per cent to 11.6 MT so far from 11 MT during the same period last year.

Lifting of wheat in the neighbouring state Haryana was up 16 per cent to 6.49 MT from 5.6 MT during the period under review. In the same period, the procurement in Madhya Pradesh was up by 18 per cent to 7.1 MT from 6.35 MT.

The government this year had made the arrangements to procure 31 MT of wheat during the current marketing year. In the marketing year 2013-14 procurement was at 25.4 MT.
In second advance estimate by the Agriculture Ministry, government has estimated wheat production to rise at record 95.60 million tonnes in 2013-14 crop year against 93.51 million tonnes in the previous year.
In October last year, government had raised the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat by Rs 50 to Rs 1,400 per quintal to encourage farmers to cover more area under the crop in the ongoing rabi season.
MSP is the rate at which government buys the grain from farmers.

The crop's sowing begins in October and harvesting starts from April onwards. The government procures most of wheat from farmers during April-June.