The Hindu Business Line : No more duty-free wheat import: Pawar

The Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, has ruled out further duty-free import of wheat on Government account beyond the 55 lakh tonnes quantity contracted by the State Trading Corporation of India (STC) or for which it has floated tenders.

"No more wheat imports are in the pipeline beyond what STC has done... No new tender will be floated", Mr Pawar told presspersons on the sidelines of a function celebrating World Coconut Day here on Saturday. The Minister was hopeful that the current heavy showers in the main northern wheat belt would improve the groundwater levels and encourage farmers to plant more area under the crop compared to last year's rabi season.

Mr Pawar called for focussed efforts to boost coconut productivity, so as to ensure an average yield of at least 10,000 nuts per hectare over a period of seven years.

In 2004-05, the all-India average was 6,632 nuts, with the highest producing State (Kerala) recording just 6,379 nuts, compared to 11,532 for Andhra Pradesh and 9,083 for Tamil Nadu.

Appreciating the efforts of the Coconut Development Board to launch a major programme for re-plantation in the 11th Plan period, the Minister said that the emphasis should be on varieties, which were high-yielding, early-bearing, easy-to-harvest and pest-resistant.

Further, there should be new harvesting devices that can be operated easily by farmers in the context of scarce labour availability.

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