The Hindu Business Line : Wheat procurement tops target

An official statement said the total procurement by various government agencies as on May 1 was 154.2 lt. This is against 82.4 lt procured during the same period last year. The Centre had set a target of procuring 150 lt wheat this year against last year’s procurement of 111 lt tonnes.

Lion’s share

Once again, Punjab and Haryana have contributed a lion’s share to the procurement programme, meant to beef up the buffer stocks. In fact, Punjab’s share is more than 50 per cent of the total wheat procured this year. Punjab’s contribution is 82.9 lt, while that of Haryana is 46.5 lt. Among other States, Madhya Pradesh contributed 9.5 lt, Uttar Pradesh 8.2 lt, Rajasthan 5.5 lt and Gujarat 1.1 lt.

Other States that contributed to wheat procurement were Bihar, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand and Delhi. Out of 154.2 lt procured by various agencies, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has procured 27.7 lt.

Special feature

One feature of this year’s procurement is that the over 150 lt have been procured in less than 20 days. Though Central procurement of wheat begins on April 1, it began late this year due to delayed arrival of the crop, which has been affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorm.

The other aspect that has helped the procurement is higher minimum support price of Rs 1,000 a quintal extended by the Centre this year. The higher support price coupled with market fees, value-added tax and commission for arthiyas (commission agents) especially in Punjab and Haryana made it a tough task for private trade to procure wheat from these two States.

Also, Food Corporation of India’s move to give 2.5 per cent commission to the arthiyas in Uttar Pradesh was expected to help to a great extent.

This year’s higher procurement comes on the heels of a projection of record 76.78 million tonnes of wheat. Last year’s production of wheat was 75.81 mt. Going by the current procurement pace, total wheat purchase by the Government agencies can easily exceed 170 lt.

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