Procurement Of Wheat Up 14.8% July

Procurement of rice for the central pool shot up by 12 per cent to 6.29 lakh tonne as against 5.22 lakh tonne, an official release said here yesterday.

With this, the progressive procurement of rice and wheat as on July 31 this year, was 166.58 lakh tonne and 162.87 lakh tonne as against 116.72 lakh tonne and 141.33 lakh tonne respectively in July last year, it said.

As on July 24 this year, Food Corporation of India (FCI) had stocked about 2.61 lakh tonne of foodgrains in north-eastern states as against 2.13 lakh tonne during the same period last year, the release said.

FCI has moved about 10.78 lakh tonne of foodgrains from the north during June, including movement of 8.82 lakh tonne of foodgrains from Punjab, it said.

Stocks of rice and wheat in the central pool as on July 1, 2000 exceeded the buffer requirements of the period by 44.90 lakh tonne and 134 lakh tonne, respectively.

As on July 1, 2000, there was 144.90 lakh tonne of rice against required buffer norms of 100 lakh tonne and 277.57 lakh tonne of wheat compared to buffer requirement of 143 lakh tonne, the release added.